Article 65 of the Balearics' 2012 tourism law refers to the activities of tour guides. "The profession of the tour guide is carried out by people who ... are paid to interpret and to provide information related to the historical and natural heritage, cultural assets and other touristic resources of the Balearic Islands to tourists and visitors in the two official languages of the Balearics as well as in any foreign language, for which the guide will have to be accredited." The law goes on to refer to the professional, legally required qualification of tour guides, the whole Article being a furtherance of the legally defined role of tour guides that had been enshrined in previous legislation and also being a mark of the high regard with which guides have been held over decades, stretching back to beyond the days when mass tourism began. Just one tour guide, from the early 1950s, was the man who founded what became Meliá Hotels International, Gabriel Escarrer Juliá.
The School of Tourism was founded in 1964. It was the body which originally regulated this profession, and note the word "profession". In that the tour guide has to gain specific qualifications, then the word is not misused. It is a word which also reinforces the standing of the tour guide. He or she has been for many years a respected member of the tourism community.
Has been, but now the tour guide is well and truly under threat. In June this year, notwithstanding Article 65 of the 2012 law, the Balearics High Court decreed that the European Union services directive - the so-called Bolkestein directive - had to apply to tour guides. This means, in effect, that pretty much anyone from any country within the European Union can be a guide and that there is very little control as to ability or quality. The Official College of Tour Guides in the Balearics - and professions in the Balearics are operated through their "colleges" - is appalled by the situation and by the fact that tour operators can contract someone who in all likelihood does not have sufficient knowledge of subject matter.
The Balearics is not the only region of Spain where there is concern about the future of the professional tour guide. The Community of Madrid, in 2009, introduced a legislative reform which showed "absolute disregard" for the professional work of guides. So said a spokesperson for Madrid's Professional Association of Tour Guides. The city has since been swamped with so-called guides, most if not all without qualification and some outside employment and social security regulations; they're doing it black, in other words.
Elsewhere, there is the "free" guide, the volunteer guide, often retired, but who similarly doesn't necessarily have any qualification for the task or the right level of knowledge. On the blog for professional tour guides, there was a post last year which criticised these "free" tours and which also criticised local authorities for providing them and so showing a lack of dignity to the tour guide profession and indeed to local culture.
This all said, the Balearics High Court was reacting in part to what had been denounced as something of a closed shop. There were too few possibilities to become a tour guide, while the legal stipulations going back over the years, such as an ability in the two official languages, tended to bar entry to the profession. And the High Court, rather like Madrid, didn't quite see the job of tour guide as being truly professional. It would not, for example, have permitted anyone to start practising as a doctor or as a lawyer. A profession means something specific. Qualifications alone - knowledge in the case of tour guides - are only part of the equation.
The tour guides face other threats. Audio guides, apps and technology might come to replace them, though it is unlikely that they will do any time soon. The demand for personal service and human interaction still greatly outweighs the convenience of some information provided by a smartphone. And this "some information" is just that. Some. It is very limited and, just as mostly all websites fail to do justice and cannot do justice to Mallorca's culture and history, there is nothing that compares with a guide who is truly knowledgeable and enthusiastic about his or her subject.
While there was some justification for the allegations of there having been a closed shop, the High Court's decision is concerning. Tour operators, and this is the charge which the College levels at them, have so little regard for the island's culture that they will take on guides without qualification and without adequate knowledge. Tour guides still have an important role to play. They are guardians of the island's culture and history. Sometimes you have the impression, though, that officialdom cares as little for this culture as tour operators seem to.
Showing posts with label Tour guides. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tour guides. Show all posts
Monday, August 11, 2014
Sunday, February 03, 2013
A Guide To Columbus - Officially
If you fancied offering your services as a tour guide, could you just put an ad in a paper and wait for tourists to come flocking? Well, you could, but you would need to be aware that you might be breaking the law.
Some definition is probably required. A tour guide, as in a rep with a tour operator for example, is not the same as what the Balearics tourism ministry and the Official College of Tour Guides in the Balearic Islands consider to be a tour guide. Article 65 of the tourism law identifies what is meant by a tour guide - "guía turístico or turística", depending on gender and not to be confused with a different "guía turística", which is a published guide. Such a human guide engages in regular and professional work in providing information and interpretative services regarding the islands' historical and natural heritage, assets of cultural interest and any other tourism resource. He or she must be accredited, and authorisation to work as a guide has to be granted by the tourism ministry.
There has been a recent flurry of activity regarding official tour guides in Mallorca. Groups have visited two towns to learn more about matters of specific cultural interest, the towns in question being Petra and Felanitx. Forty guides turned up in Petra to be able to offer "routes", both cultural and gastronomic, related to Fray Juniper, whose 300th birthday is being celebrated this year. (I'm not sure what the gastronomic bit has to do with the old Father, but be that as it may.)
This is all perfectly reasonable. Juniper Serra was born in Petra, of this there is no doubt. He is one of Mallorca's most famous sons, albeit that his fame outside of Mallorca is largely restricted to California, where he was a missionary. The twenty guides who have been to Felanitx, on the other hand, pitched up to hear about someone whose Mallorcan connection is, at best, highly questionable: Christopher Columbus.
The guides heard from the Mallorcan historian who has been arguing the case for Coumbus having come from Felanitx for years, Gabriel Verd Martorell. Much though I admire Verd's persistence, the biggest problem he has lies in convincing a sceptical world that his version of history is the correct one. The world still believes, and probably correctly, that Columbus came from Genoa.
One report of the gathering of the guides in Felanitx used a telling word. It said (and I translate) that the guides "are charged with indoctrinating ...". It may not have intended the implication, but indoctrination is usually taken to mean instruction in often contentious ideas to the point that they are accepted uncritically. The guides of Felanitx are, in effect, a means of furthering propaganda about Columbus that remains unproven.
There are of course examples of tourism attractions which are based on falsehoods: Loch Ness is one such. No guide worth his salt or his profession would insist that the monster exists, and so information which is conveyed concentrates on how the legend came about. And this is how it should be. If guides make it perfectly clear that Columbus's origins in Felanitx are but one theory about Columbus, then no real harm is done. If they end up leaving visitors believing that he did come from Felanitx, then they are causing harm, because they will have turned a theory into a fact. Much would depend upon how persuasive the "indoctrination" is and so therefore the belief.
One comes back to the credentials that a tour guide needs under the tourism law. They are designed, one would presume, to ensure that a guide is capable of disseminating fact, of distinguishing between fact and supposition or alternative theory and of not passing on garbage. There are many involved in the tourism industry who deal with the latter because they are misinformed or not informed at all. Hence, why there is an official college for guides and official authorisation required for guides to practise.
The Felanitx theory is an intriguing one and it certainly isn't without persuasion. Verd is sincere in his beliefs about Columbus. But it is, I stress, only a theory, and tour guides, one would hope, would appreciate this. There is, from the same report I mentioned above, another telling line. It is a quote from Verd. "We have made the product (Columbus from Felanitx), but until now have failed to commercialise it." And therein lies the rub, the commercialisation, the marketing, the money. But the word for "made" in the original Spanish report is potentially the most telling: "fabricado".
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Some definition is probably required. A tour guide, as in a rep with a tour operator for example, is not the same as what the Balearics tourism ministry and the Official College of Tour Guides in the Balearic Islands consider to be a tour guide. Article 65 of the tourism law identifies what is meant by a tour guide - "guía turístico or turística", depending on gender and not to be confused with a different "guía turística", which is a published guide. Such a human guide engages in regular and professional work in providing information and interpretative services regarding the islands' historical and natural heritage, assets of cultural interest and any other tourism resource. He or she must be accredited, and authorisation to work as a guide has to be granted by the tourism ministry.
There has been a recent flurry of activity regarding official tour guides in Mallorca. Groups have visited two towns to learn more about matters of specific cultural interest, the towns in question being Petra and Felanitx. Forty guides turned up in Petra to be able to offer "routes", both cultural and gastronomic, related to Fray Juniper, whose 300th birthday is being celebrated this year. (I'm not sure what the gastronomic bit has to do with the old Father, but be that as it may.)
This is all perfectly reasonable. Juniper Serra was born in Petra, of this there is no doubt. He is one of Mallorca's most famous sons, albeit that his fame outside of Mallorca is largely restricted to California, where he was a missionary. The twenty guides who have been to Felanitx, on the other hand, pitched up to hear about someone whose Mallorcan connection is, at best, highly questionable: Christopher Columbus.
The guides heard from the Mallorcan historian who has been arguing the case for Coumbus having come from Felanitx for years, Gabriel Verd Martorell. Much though I admire Verd's persistence, the biggest problem he has lies in convincing a sceptical world that his version of history is the correct one. The world still believes, and probably correctly, that Columbus came from Genoa.
One report of the gathering of the guides in Felanitx used a telling word. It said (and I translate) that the guides "are charged with indoctrinating ...". It may not have intended the implication, but indoctrination is usually taken to mean instruction in often contentious ideas to the point that they are accepted uncritically. The guides of Felanitx are, in effect, a means of furthering propaganda about Columbus that remains unproven.
There are of course examples of tourism attractions which are based on falsehoods: Loch Ness is one such. No guide worth his salt or his profession would insist that the monster exists, and so information which is conveyed concentrates on how the legend came about. And this is how it should be. If guides make it perfectly clear that Columbus's origins in Felanitx are but one theory about Columbus, then no real harm is done. If they end up leaving visitors believing that he did come from Felanitx, then they are causing harm, because they will have turned a theory into a fact. Much would depend upon how persuasive the "indoctrination" is and so therefore the belief.
One comes back to the credentials that a tour guide needs under the tourism law. They are designed, one would presume, to ensure that a guide is capable of disseminating fact, of distinguishing between fact and supposition or alternative theory and of not passing on garbage. There are many involved in the tourism industry who deal with the latter because they are misinformed or not informed at all. Hence, why there is an official college for guides and official authorisation required for guides to practise.
The Felanitx theory is an intriguing one and it certainly isn't without persuasion. Verd is sincere in his beliefs about Columbus. But it is, I stress, only a theory, and tour guides, one would hope, would appreciate this. There is, from the same report I mentioned above, another telling line. It is a quote from Verd. "We have made the product (Columbus from Felanitx), but until now have failed to commercialise it." And therein lies the rub, the commercialisation, the marketing, the money. But the word for "made" in the original Spanish report is potentially the most telling: "fabricado".
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Big Log
How do you get hotels to stay open in winter? Incentives, plenty of carrot? Or how about the reverse and plenty of stick? Were you aware that hotels have the option to stay open in winter but that many fail to take up that option? Hotel X will be officially listed as six, seven or twelve months of the year, and if it is the twelve, irrespective of whether the hotel does take up the option and is open, there will be a local tax for the off-season months; not a big one but tax nonetheless. This is where the stick, or rather a bigger stick with a pointed end, is due to come in; in Alcúdia at any rate; and in 2011. If the hotel has that option, it is going to be paying a higher tax for the privilege. With that stick hovering, the hope would be that the hotel would actually open. It's a theory, I suppose.
We've been here before. The issue is less one of the hotel staying open as why anyone would want to come to the hotel or whether they would be able to come even if they did want to, and for this latter aspect one has to consider the airlines and the tour operators. It's all very well using the stick of higher taxes to make those hotels stay open - and there is no actual shortage of those with the option - but, with the best will in the world, will people bother turning up? While the hotel itself may be able to conjure up enough by way of food, drink and entertainment, the hotel - by itself - is not a reason to come. It is what goes on outside that matters. And it is the ability of the hotel/hotels - together with the local authority - to put in place packages of things to do that would justify the higher tax. Otherwise it is just punitive, especially if the town hall sits on its backside and doesn't get involved with promotion and proactively assisting in creating attractive packages of events.
More immediately pressing of course is what this season will bring. Tourism minister Nadal's vain plea to the media to avoid scaremongering has been for the most part just that - vain. There again, if the head of the Mallorca hotel federation is willing to feed the media with stories of "worries" then that same media is hardly likely to ignore them. He's at it again, saying that there are these "worries" in Alcúdia and Muro because of the likely problems with the British market. Well, there will always be worries, but it should not be overlooked that one thing both Alcúdia and Muro have going for them is that they are cosmopolitan; the British are important but the tourist market in these places is pretty diverse, more so than, for example, Pollensa. Sr. Horrach, the federation head, is also warning that the hotels can anticipate fewer tourists and lower revenues this year. I think we would be worried if he were to say the opposite.
JOBS VACANCIES - SUMMER SEASON 2009
A first for the blog and probably a last as well. Recession may have hit Spain, but not Mallorca (and that is officially the case), and so employment opportunities flourish - sort of. Anyway, here are positions that I am pleased to offer. Well, not me as such; offering on someone's behalf.
Travel agency requires:
1. Customer service/sales staff
Positions available for season starting mid April until end October 2009.
Duties include providing information to clients, proactive selling of services in our resort offices.
Applicants must be well presented, confident, have a good knowledge of the island of Mallorca, be willing to learn, work well in a small team, flexible with regard to working hours. Languages an advantage.
We provide:
Spanish contract; weekly sales commission; a young dynamic work environment; full and ongoing training.
2. In-house tour guides
Duties include accompanying groups of clients to various points, providing interesting, entertaining commentary throughout the journey, ensuring the welfare of the customers and the success of the day.
Would suit mature person on a part-time basis.
Applicant needs to be physically fit, well presented, confident on the microphone, have a good knowledge of the island.
Applications for both positions welcome to the following email address. Please attach a recent photograph.
summerwork2009@hotmail.com
(Let me just say that, though it may not be clear which company this is, it is a very reputable business and I can vouch for both the company and the authenticity of the posts being offered - just in case anyone might think otherwise.)
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Spandau Ballet, "True" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYb83KM4at4). Today - Ok, so it's rather bigger than a stick. Who was it?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
We've been here before. The issue is less one of the hotel staying open as why anyone would want to come to the hotel or whether they would be able to come even if they did want to, and for this latter aspect one has to consider the airlines and the tour operators. It's all very well using the stick of higher taxes to make those hotels stay open - and there is no actual shortage of those with the option - but, with the best will in the world, will people bother turning up? While the hotel itself may be able to conjure up enough by way of food, drink and entertainment, the hotel - by itself - is not a reason to come. It is what goes on outside that matters. And it is the ability of the hotel/hotels - together with the local authority - to put in place packages of things to do that would justify the higher tax. Otherwise it is just punitive, especially if the town hall sits on its backside and doesn't get involved with promotion and proactively assisting in creating attractive packages of events.
More immediately pressing of course is what this season will bring. Tourism minister Nadal's vain plea to the media to avoid scaremongering has been for the most part just that - vain. There again, if the head of the Mallorca hotel federation is willing to feed the media with stories of "worries" then that same media is hardly likely to ignore them. He's at it again, saying that there are these "worries" in Alcúdia and Muro because of the likely problems with the British market. Well, there will always be worries, but it should not be overlooked that one thing both Alcúdia and Muro have going for them is that they are cosmopolitan; the British are important but the tourist market in these places is pretty diverse, more so than, for example, Pollensa. Sr. Horrach, the federation head, is also warning that the hotels can anticipate fewer tourists and lower revenues this year. I think we would be worried if he were to say the opposite.
JOBS VACANCIES - SUMMER SEASON 2009
A first for the blog and probably a last as well. Recession may have hit Spain, but not Mallorca (and that is officially the case), and so employment opportunities flourish - sort of. Anyway, here are positions that I am pleased to offer. Well, not me as such; offering on someone's behalf.
Travel agency requires:
1. Customer service/sales staff
Positions available for season starting mid April until end October 2009.
Duties include providing information to clients, proactive selling of services in our resort offices.
Applicants must be well presented, confident, have a good knowledge of the island of Mallorca, be willing to learn, work well in a small team, flexible with regard to working hours. Languages an advantage.
We provide:
Spanish contract; weekly sales commission; a young dynamic work environment; full and ongoing training.
2. In-house tour guides
Duties include accompanying groups of clients to various points, providing interesting, entertaining commentary throughout the journey, ensuring the welfare of the customers and the success of the day.
Would suit mature person on a part-time basis.
Applicant needs to be physically fit, well presented, confident on the microphone, have a good knowledge of the island.
Applications for both positions welcome to the following email address. Please attach a recent photograph.
summerwork2009@hotmail.com
(Let me just say that, though it may not be clear which company this is, it is a very reputable business and I can vouch for both the company and the authenticity of the posts being offered - just in case anyone might think otherwise.)
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Spandau Ballet, "True" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYb83KM4at4). Today - Ok, so it's rather bigger than a stick. Who was it?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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