On Wednesday, representatives from travel agents, universities and colleges, along with some tour guides, across Da Nang attended a dialogue on training tour guides.

According to a spokesperson for the municipal Tourism Department, Da Nang now ranks 3^rd in the nation after Ho Chi Minh and Ha Noi in the number of tour guides. In particular, the majority of the city’s tour guides is serving visitors from English, Chinese, Japanese and Russian-speaking countries.

Currently, Da Nang is now home to over 15 establishments training tourism-related jobs and only 3 of them specialises in training tour guides. In addition, there are 7 training centres for Japanese language, 7 for Chinese and 6 for South Korean in the city.

Most of local tour guides have been graduated from junior colleges and intermediate schools whilst the bachelor holders involving this aspect are university graduates from the faculty of foreign languages.

Mr Cao Tri Dung, Chairman of the city’s Travel Association, remarked Da Nang is now facing a sharp shortage of between 400 and 500 tour guides able to communicate in South Korean language.

He suggested that local universities and junior colleges should renew their training curriculum, as well as provide their students with general knowledge about geographical positions, culture and history of both domestic and foreign localities, along with soft skills to help them deal with unexpected situations.

Some representatives from local travel agents and universities noted that local tour guides are facing a shortage of communication and problem-solving skills. Another limitation facing the tour guides is that their foreign language proficiency has yet to satisfy the increasing demand of their career in reality.