What are we training tour guides for? (India)

Abstract

Regional Level Guide Training Programe (RLGTP) is an ambitious programe of Government of India aimed at creating professional guides who can accompany tourist over a region. Entire country has been divided in to 5 regions. An important issue to address is the kind of tour guides these training programes should produce. This would depend upon the content and approach to training which in turn depends on the vision for roles guides should play in tourism value chain. This paper is a case study based evaluation of the content of the RLGTP vis-à-vis the six-dimensional model proposed by Chowdhary and Prakash (2008). Authors calculate the weight-age given to different inputs and try to uncover the underlying assumptions about the role of a tour guide. Paper also makes recommendations related to design of content for the guide training programe.

Keywords

• Guide training
• training content
• India
• RLGTP