CONGRATULATIONS to Malacca Chief Minister Datuk Seri Idris Haron for launching a smartphone application known as Destinasi Melaka, developed by Telekom Malaysia and the Malacca Tourism Promotion Division.
I was a tour guide in the early 1970s, during the period when Malacca had a tour guide named Robert Tan. His passion and knowledge of Malacca were second to none, and even tourist guides would gladly pay to listen to him.
This is unlike tour guides of today. Although they attended part-time courses for up to six months, many were content to learn just enough to pass the examinations to obtain the licence.
The knowledge they picked up were from the same source travellers could read up on.
Unsurprisingly, some well-read travellers are more knowledgeable than many of our licensed tour guides, totalling more than 15,000 nationwide. Nearly all of them are freelancers, with the majority active only occasionally.
Because it is compulsory for tour buses to have a tour guide on board, the tour guide licence is a valuable commodity and too precious to allow to lapse.
As a result, the standard of service provided by tour guides can be wide ranging. Some come close to the late Robert Tan and are worth every ringgit. At the other extreme are tour guides hired to do nothing but sit in the bus.
These sitting guides are hired just to comply with the regulations, while the tour leader or a local representative takes charge and gives commentaries.
Of the 15,405 tour guides in the Tourism and Culture Ministry registry as of Aug 31 last year, 1,250 are licensed for 15 foreign languages. The rest are for English, Malay, Tamil, Mandarin, Cantonese and Hokkien, which are considered local languages and dialects.
Good tour guides should not only be knowledgeable. They must also present facts in an interesting or humorous way to suit the audience. This requires great communication skills, which are lacking in guides.
Those with poor people skills can be irritating and it would be unfair to tourists if they had to pay for the services of tour guides they do not want.
Under existing regulations, tourists on sightseeing trips must engage a tour guide, and tour buses and vans are frequently checked by enforcement officers.
Some tour bus operators were fined RM18,000 for not having a tour guide on board.
In a way, tour guides are similar to singers. Most of the time, we would be content to listen to a good recording, as watching a live performance is too expensive.
In this day and age, information is available at their fingertips.
Those with smartphones and phone apps like Destination Melaka can provide more accurate information than tour guides.
The phone app is attracting tourists to Malacca and has generated interest in Brazil, the United States and the United Kingdom. Upon arrival in Malacca, tourists can move about on their own confidently with the aid of the Global Positioning System.
The phone app can also double up as a record of their visit and help in reporting the their experiences.
As such, tourism in any destination with a phone app is set to soar.
It is no surprise that Malacca has taken the lead as the state has always been at the forefront of tourism.
C.Y. Ming,
Ampang, Selangor