The Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) has embarked on a drive to license all tour guides in the country.
Hospitality lectures will be offered to all tour guides and also meeting stakeholders such as the tourism police and tourism officers, on how best to enforce professionalism within the industry.
The tour guides will be trained for two weeks and interviewed to determine whether they are fit to operate in the tourism industry.
Most tour guides in the country lack the necessary ethics while practising their job, which is affecting the growth of the tourism industry, says UTB’s classification and registration officer, Angela Nalugo.
Nalugo says tour guides will be licensed, at no charge, and will be given uniforms and registration numbers for easy identification and scrutiny in case they engage in misconduct while on duty.
All tour guides who operate without acquiring UTB licences and registration numbers will be charged with impersonation.
Herbert Byaruhanga, Vice Chairperson of UTB, says the Board has presided over training of 6 000 tour guides throughout the different regions of the country, and licensing them has been overdue.
Tourism is one of Uganda’s biggest revenue earners and tour guides are essential in this industry. All guides will be assessed and licensed if they are to operate in 2020.
