In July 2011, we held the soft launch of the Tour Guide Chapter and some of you might have attended. Back then, we had about 100 over members. Today, we have close to 400 members. This is only possible with the help and continuous support of you and many tourist guides. Likewise, we would like to give you our support. We understand there are many tourist guides who wish to join us today too but have a tour on hand. We would like to thank them too.
Now, the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) will be officially launching the Tour Guide Chapter (TGC), a professional chapter under the care of the Attractions, Resorts & Entertainment Union (AREU).
For some of you who might not know us yet, the Tour Guide Chapter is a platform set up by the Labour Movement to address employment and employability issues in the tourism industry. We aim to be the collective voice of licensed tourist guides, to raise the professionalism of the industry through quality up-skilling programmes and to provide relevant union membership benefits to our members.
Three key objectives that the Tour Guide Chapter is working towards, firstly,
(A) Advocacy - The collective voice of licensed tourist guides
Over the months, we have been working closely with a couple of our tourist guides, to hear and understand from them on the problems and challenges faced during work on the ground.
We initiated several focus group discussions with some of our licensed inbound tourist guides and also received feedback from some of you. It is obvious that the most pertinent issue is on guiding by unlicensed guides and the lack of enforcement of the Singapore Tourism (Licensing & Control of Tourist Guides) Regulations and the Travel Agents Act & Regulations.
As a collective voice, NTUC has since brought these up with the Singapore Tourism Board and the relevant authorities over several meetings and have raised questions pertaining to the Act and Regulations to the Parliament. During this launch, we would like to highlight this particular point and ask the Singapore Tourism Board and authorities to look into this issue with great importance as it is affecting the livelihood of our members who are tourist guides. Enforcement on violation of the regulatory provisions has to be acted upon and we must send a strong signal to the players in the industry.
We also hear from our very own Singaporean guides that unlicensed foreign guides conducting tours in Singapore’s vernacular languages are imparting inaccurate tourist information and history about Singapore to tourists. This has affected the overall image of local tourist guides and of Singapore as a tourist destination. NTUC would like to call upon building a strong Singapore Core within the tourist guide sector and draw on local guides’ wealth of knowledge on Singapore, given that you are more familiar with Singapore’s heritage and culture than foreign guides.
Today, if a travel agent requires the service of the tourist guide in our native language, Singaporean licensed tourist guides should be the first choice, and not a foreign licensed tourist guide, let alone a foreign unlicensed tourist guide.
As an advocate, the Tour Guide Chapter (AREU) will continue to engage the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Ministry of Manpower (MOM) propose solutions to address prevailing issues such as:
(B) Raising Professionalism of Tourism Industry - Through quality training and professional development programmes for the tourist guides
Tourist guides have given us feedback that there is a lack of professionalism in the tourism industry in Singapore today.
Firstly, due to an increase in number of unlicensed guides guiding in Singapore, we are told more unlicensed guides are delivering inaccurate information about our history and culture, and inaccurate facts of Singapore to tourists.
Therefore, we have raised the issue to STB and would like STB and the relevant authorities to step up on their enforcement plans. We are also prepared to work together with them in any particular area in their strategy planning that our Chapter and tourist guides can assist.
Moving forward with this, the professionalism and image of our licensed tourist guides and tourism industry can be improved and recognised.
Secondly, a handful of you have given us feedback that there is a need to equip yourselves with product updates and information constantly, in order to provide up-to-date details to tourists.
This year, we have partnered selected local attractions such as the Maritime Experiential Museum & Aquarium (MEMA), Singapore City Gallery and Marina City Gallery, thanks to both the hosts of Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) and Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to bring our tourists guides around. Today, we are glad to have them with us at the Launch too. In fact, there is an optional FAM tour hosted by URA at Marina City Gallery right after your lunch reception, I believe most of you have registered for the tour too.
Currently, we are in talks with STB and several attractions such as RWS and NParks to offer more Product Updates and Familiarisation (FAM) tours for both new and existing licensed tourist guides. STB has also agreed to work with us on incorporating both field and classroom learning under the PDC approved courses. We believe this will be beneficial to our tourist guides’ learning.
In addition, we are meeting several training providers to tie up on other PDC approved courses. My colleague, Kelly, will be able to share more information on all these with you via email and our official Facebook Page in the coming months.
In the recent months, NTUC PME Alignment Unit has also organised a series of Legal Primer Workshops extended to members of TGC to learn more about contractual rights and obligations. About 80 of you have joined us.
We hope, with all these programmes in the works, professionalism of our tourist guides and the industry as a whole will be raised over the years.
(C) Strengthening the Social Security of Tourist Guides – Relevant union membership and benefits
As most of you work on a freelance basis as a self-employed for various travel agents, we understand you may not have a stable income. Amid an ageing population and shrinking workforce, the Tour Guide Chapter recognises the pressing need to strengthen the social safety net of this group of Singaporeans so that you can continue to contribute to the growing industry.
In recent months, we have negotiated and will be inking the memorandum of understanding with the Raffles Medical Group (RMG) and Q&M Dental Group during the launch later. We would like to thank them for agreeing to provide an affordable and comprehensive suite of outpatient and dental services with effect from today.
With these, our licensed tourist guides, just like any other full-time employees will have ready access to affordable healthcare services. This is in line with the Government’s efforts to build a fair and inclusive society.
In addition, we have also tied up with NTUC Income, a social enterprise and a leading insurer in Singapore, to offer Personal Accident insurance plans at preferential rates. These policies are designed to be affordable and to provide a safety net to you. Thank you, NTUC Income.
Today marks the official launch of our Tour Guide Chapter. Together with our tourist guides, we continue to be the collective voice for you and enhance your livelihood, with your great continuous support to the Chapter.
With this, I shall pass it on to my colleague, Kelly, to introduce the Tour Guide Chapter and the series of events.
Thank you.
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