Tour guides should update knowledge on the Sultanate

TOUR guides working in Brunei have to take personal efforts to further update and upgrade their knowledge of the country to provide tourists with a better impression, as well as a more positive and balanced picture of the Sultanate.

Brunei Tourism's Director of Marketing and Promotion Jean Christophe Robles Espinosa, said that tour guides are often the main person that visitors to the country will interact with.

"A tour guide will have to interpret the country for them so if a guide does not have enough information on Brunei, he might not know what is interesting and thus lower the perceived value of the country," he said during an interview with The Brunei Times yesterday.

"How you tell people about Brunei will affect their image and how they feel about the country," he added.

Espinosa said that this was especially true for a country like Brunei which lacked well-known attractions such as that of China's Great Wall and the Pyramids.

"Not many people know about Brunei so we need guides to tell them the stories and history of Brunei... Why do people live in Kampong Ayer? Tourists are curious and need to be told such information," he said.

Tour guides also have the role of correcting misconceptions that foreign visitors might have of Brunei.

"They will have to address these misconceptions in a sensitive way. They need to learn how to handle themselves when asked hard questions and not reject or answer with nonsense. They need to learn ways to go round such questions," he said.

Meanwhile, Brunei Tourism is currently holding a two-week tour guide training programme conducted by trainers from the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations (WFTGA).

"We organised a similar programme last year following discussions with Brunei's Association of Travel Agents who requested tour guide training to become better," said Espinosa.

"The idea is not to train people in specifics of a country but hands on training, for new and experienced guides, to either acquire or perfect their skills in communication, attitude and how to focus on top visual priorities while delivering interesting information to tourists," he added.

"The important thing is to know how to deliver the information in a coherent and interesting way... not to deliver a lecture but to take care of the tourists and give them a good experience of Brunei," he said.

When asked if there were currently enough tour guides in the Sultanate, Espinosa replied that the more important issue was the need for tour guides in Brunei to see tour guide as a permanent profession and career.

"We have enough guides but the question is to develop them into passionate full time guides. In other countries, people do this with more passion because they know they are the ambassadors of their countries," he said.

"Tour guides in Brunei have to realise that they are the most important frontliners in the tourism industry and that this is a very rewarding profession for those who don't want to sit behind the desk all the time," added the director.

The training programme is divided into two sessions, the first involving 20 participants while the second session is scheduled to begin by next week.

The Brunei Times