the guiding path

[padmanabha]

There has been a sea change in the attitude of tourists attracted towards India. If earlier, most of them wanted to see India’s historic and religious monuments, today they come here with their hard earned money to see the life in India its people, their social and cultural behavior. Here comes the role of tourist guides. If you thought the tourist guide is entrusted only with the task of explaining some historic facts about important places it is high time you change it. Neither is his task simple nor or his duties restricted to explaining a few sentences learnt from text books, brochures and legends. It has become a highly professional job.

Today’s tourist guides have to do a lot of home work to know about the preferences and tastes of tourists, guide-tourists relations and crisis management.

“We have been given intense training for 12 weeks. Getting through the examinations and interview is not easy. And it is not just academic record that counts” says Suresh, a tourist guide. According to him more than history, tourists prefer to know culture, politics, social development after independence and the flora and fauna. If there is a night stay at a tourist spot, we take them for a village walk. They are amazed to see the family relations still alive.
Tourists may be either a general interest group or a special interest group. For the former, a superficial description is enough. But for the special interest group the guide should have to really work hard. They may ask doubts. If it is a package tour the guide has to fill the traveling time gap. We narrate stories from legends, and myths. We discuss customs and traditions at times sensitive issues- says anees Mathew.

Foreigners prefer hygienic places to stay. They like Kerala cuisine. They need very heavy breakfast and dinner-observes she.
The role of the guide is of paramount importance in elevating the image of the country in the minds of the tourists. They execute the duties of the cultural ambassador.

Pushparajan opines that the guides should have presence of mind to face unforeseen situations like hartal late arrivals of trains and even floods.
Guides should be extroverts and should have the back ground of our culture. They should know what to talk and when to stop. He had accompanied special groups many times. Once when the visitors were taken to a tribal area near Munnar, all the women folk fled to the nearby hillock and returned only after our departure.

He recalled another incident- a group of tourists were cycling from Bangalore to Trivandrum. On reaching Karthikappalli a middle aged man with his family was standing on the road side in front of his hut. He was drunk. Pointing to the foreigners including women he said to his wife, “Look how comfortable are the women in shorts. You are demanding silk sarees!!”

Anees feels that gender discrimination exists in this field. She was asked to accompany a team for half payment. The society also looks at us differently for we stay with strangers.
Domestic tourists create many hassles. They never plan before hand. If a group has 20 visitors they walk in 20 directions. They argue unnecessarily on silly things.
Foreigners complain about rugged road ways and lack of toilet facilities.
Mike Edward, Assistant Editor of National geographic magazine was accompanied by Manoj. He says for the assistant editor the bureaucratic set up gave enough troubles. Leo-de Clarque from Belgium opined that no photograph of the tourist spots and monuments can be composed without hoarding and banners in their back drop. This is a seasonal work. How do they manage in off seasons?
We do short term language courses; we visit places, so that the tourists can be taken there in the following year.


Tourist guides have associations in the regional level and at the national level like GUEST and TGFI. The guide is paid for each assignment which depends on the number of persons in the group and the duration of the trip. They were provided license from the Department of Tourism Government of India.

(this article of mine was published in the Hindu a few years back)

[Braandan]

Please post the date of the 'The Hindu' issue.

[padmanabha]

I think it was in November 2000. The write was published in the Metro.
Normally i cut the date line and the name of the paper from the news paper and paste in one corner of the paper cutting. Unfortunately i lost the dates of many write ups.