Travel firms using foreign guides will lose license

A Russian man guides a group of Russian tourists around Champa temples in Nha Trang. Photo: Nguyen Chung
The Vietnamese tourism authority said it will revoke license of any travel in Vietnam agency found using foreign tour
guides in the country a practice which companies !lame on the lack of local guides fluent in a certain foreign
languages.
The statement !y Vietnam National Administration of Tourism "VNAT# was made after a Thanh Nien report last week
a!out Russians working as tour guides in the resort town Nha Trang in $hanh %oa Province.
Nguyen &anh Cuong VNAT 'eputy (eneral 'irector said in the statement such violations )directly affected the
image and service *uality of Vietnam+s tourism.,
VNAT asked city-provincial tourism departments to check for the violations and impose punishments including
revoking license.
.t said tourism companies have to hire local tour guides who can at least speak /nglish and the head of a foreign tour
is responsi!le of interpreting it for any tour mem!ers who don+t speak /nglish.
The Thanh Nien report said that at least three groups of Russian tourists to Cham temples in Nha Trang were led !y
Russian guides who did not wear tour guide cards as re*uired !y regulations.
A local relic management official said since he couldn0t speak Russian he didn+t understand what the tour guides
said.
Phan 'inh %ue director of a Viet Circle tourism company !lamed VNAT for poor guidance to help travel agencies !e
prepared for the market in foreign language training.
%ue said if VNAT had focused on training Russian speaking staffs since 1223 there would !e ade*uate *ualified
personnel now.
Vietnam from 1223 started to e4empt visa for Russians visiting up to 56 days.
A!out 137222 Russians visited Vietnam last year half of whom went to $hanh %oa. The province e4pected the
num!er of Russian tourist to dou!le this year !ut it has only 82 local tour guides speaking Russian.
$hanh %oa home to the Cam Ranh military port where a Russian fleet once stationed is a favorite destination for
many Russian visitors some feeling comforta!le enough to settle down.
Russian Navy !egan using Cam Ranh port in the province in 5383 making it Russia+s !iggest Naval !ase outside its
territory. The relationship persisted until 1221.
Cam Ranh was turned from a military port into a civil one for Vietnamese in 1229 !ut recent agreements have
allowed Russia to come !ack to invest in a shipyard a su!marine !ase and a 6:star resort for Russian military
officers.