Selected Foreign Tour Guides To Operate In Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 (Bernama) -- Selected tour guides from Russia, South Korea, Iran and Japan will be allowed to operate in Malaysia starting October to meet the demand for more tour guides who speak foreign languages, Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said Tuesday. She said the government would scrutinise the foreign tour guides before allowing them to operate in the country. "We will be very selective. Only tour guides who know Malaysia well will be selected. We will also accept recommendations from tour operators," she told a news conference after chairing a dialogue session between the ministry and industry players on the Malaysia Tourism Transformation Plan 2020, here.

Ng said that last year the ministry spent RM3.6 million on capacity-building programmes for tour guides, which included tour guide and foreign language courses. These programmes were among the government's efforts to increase the number of foreign language speaking tourist guides for Arab, French, German, Korean and Russian tourists, she said. She also said that in the first five months of this year, the number of tourist arrivals saw an increase of 4.2 per cent to 9.6 million compared to 9.2 million for the corresponding period last year. Ng said that beginning October, tour companies would no longer be required to register with the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) to run their business. She said Matta would play the role of capacity-building and educate its members on issues pertaining to tourism.