Low-income Malaysians can apply to be trained as local hosts under new scheme

Adam: local hosts will not compete with traditional tour guides

Malaysians with a household income of RM4,000 (US$974) and below may qualify for a new scheme designed to train and certify 2,000 local hosts as ‘Tour Buddies’ to local and foreign tourists.

The Digital Sharing Economy initiative was recently introduced by the Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association (MITA) in collaboration with government agency, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation.

Participants will be screened through interviews.

MITA secretary-general, Adam Kamal, shared: “The idea is to provide them training to earn supplementary income. They will not be competing with tourist guides as they will only offer their services within the area that they live and to small groups like families and FITs.”

After the course, MITA will assist participants in registering with any of the existing tour sharing economy apps available such as ToursByLocals and ShowAround.

From next month through to April 2018, participants will be trained on how to use the Tour Buddy mobile app to access information on local places of interest including their history and what dining and retail spots are in the area.

The training will also touch on soft skills such as how to meet and greet tourists and the do’s and don’ts when accompanying tourists.

The initial training in December will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Perak, Langkawi and Johor Bahru. Subsequent trainings will be expanded to East Malaysia.

-TTG Asia.