PRESS RELEASE TOURIST GUIDES’ SCHOOLS:

A STANDARD FOR ABROAD – AN UNBEARABLE BURDEN FOR THE MINISTRY OF TOURISM

Doesn’t the Greek State wish for its tourist guides - Greeks and foreigners – to be properly trained and inspired, so that they can earn the trust and admiration of their audience?

Whose needs does the reduction of the duration of studies in the Guides and their gradual degradation satisfy?

For a year now the Greek Ministry of Tourism has declared an "uncompromising" struggle against the profession of tourist guide. The final blow will be a decision of the leadership of the Ministry to shorten the duration of study and cut down the field trips in the state schools for tourist guides and its obvious intentions of handing over these studies into private institutes, which would naturally consequent to their deterioration.

The Panhellenic Tourist Guides’ Federation considers the training of tourist guides as part of the tourism policy of our country and therefore supports its public and vocational character.

The tourist guides’ school of Greece have been considered by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) as an example for training guides in Europe in 1996, with its appropriate expertise advised to be exported to other countries.

The big advantage of these vocational studies is the 100 days of educational excursions (field trips) for the students to visit and practice in all places of historical, archaeological or other touristic interest across Greece. Our schools should be maintained as they are, at all costs, even with the students’ participation in expenses, as it had happened for years in the past. It’s an indispensable asset for future guides to attract high quality students, which classifies the Greek Guides’ Schools among the best vocational schools in the tourism sector at European level.

Handing over our guides’ training to individuals after downgrading it by law, will just implement an easy, inexpensive, just theoretical curriculum in classroom, which would gradually lead to the discrediting and elimination of the profession for the qualified tourist guide of Greece.