In the current context of Da Nang’s fast growing tourism industry, although there have been some positive results from the State management of tourism activities, the local authorities are now strictly mulling over how to effectively enhance the professionalism of tour guides, and ensure a healthy tourism environment as well.

Visitors admiring exhibits on display at the Museum of Da Nang

Between January and June, 1 Chinese and 4 South Korean nationals were given fines of 90 million VND in total for conducting illegal tour guiding activities in the city.

Also, some domestic and foreign tour guides were fined for using fake tour guide cards, using domestic tour guide cards for doing their jobs in foreign countries, and lending other people their tour guide cards.

According to the current Vietnamese regulations, travel firms serving foreign tourists in Viet Nam must use local tour guides, with no foreigners allowed to work as tour guides. Despite this, many foreigners have worked illegally as tour guides for visitor groups from their country to the city over recent months.

The foreigners are reported to do all the talking both on tourist coaches and at local popular attractions, whilst the city’s foreign-speaking guides work as ‘sitting guides’, and their job is purely to keep silent throughout the tour, and only show up to work with the inspection teams from the city authorities whenever a foreign tourist group is checked.

In late March, the municipal Tourism Department imposed a fine of 12.5 million VND on Chinese-speaking Vietnamese tour guide Tran A Hung from the city branch of the Eviva Tour Vietnam for ‘failing to manage his client in accordance with regulations defined in the contract’.

His negligence allowed a Chinese female visitor to take over and spread distorted information about the truth of Viet Nam’s history and its culture to her fellow country men and women.

Hung was guiding a group of Chinese visitors to the Museum of Da Nang in the city centre on 26 February. On that day, a Chinese woman, identified as 48 year-old Wang JiHong, one of Hung’s clients, took on the role of a tour guide herself at the museum. She told false stories about Viet Nam’s history and its culture to other members of her visitor group at museum.

This Chinese national said ‘ao dai’ (the Vietnamese traditional long dress) came from ‘cheongsam’, a body-hugging one-piece dress for Chinese women, and although the ‘ao dai’ is made in the Vietnamese style, it looks the same as the Chinese ‘cheongsam’. She went on to say that Viet Nam belonged to China in the past.

In some cases, many tour guides only think of their own benefits more than those of the tourists or travel agencies. The first thing these tour guides do whenever they lead a new group of vacationers is think about taking them to certain shopping venues where they will enjoy commissions from the store owners on purchases of the tourists,

They also try to bring their vacationers to destinations outside the official itinerary without the tour organisers’ knowledge, and to get generous tips from them. So there’s no time left for them to introduce the beauty or profound culture of the attractions. Tourists thus have to pay more on their trips and sometimes they fall prey to rip-offs by the shops that are not recommended by the travel companies whose tour packages they purchased.

Visitors learning about the city’s history and culture through trips to the Museum of Da Nang

Mr Doan Hai Dang, the Director of the city’s branch of Vietravel cum Vice Chairman of the city’s Travel Association, stressed a need for the city authorities to impose heavier fines on illegal tourism activities. In such countries boasting the strong tourism growth as Thailand, South Korea and Japan, a fine of up to 5,000 US$ (equivalent to over 100 million VND) can be imposed on the use of fake tour guide cards.

Mr Nguyen Xuan Binh, the Deputy Director of the municipal Tourism Department, said his unit had instructed travel agencies to carefully re-check the number of tour bookers, tour guides, and foreign employees working there. It was also proposed that automatic audio guides in such foreign languages as Chinese and South Korean should be introduced to visitors at local attractions in order to avoid the problem of distorting information about the truth of Viet Nam’s history and its culture.

Mr Tran Tra, the Head of the city’s Tour Guide Club, said his unit has always tighten the management of the performances by its member tour guides, apart from helping to enhance their qualifications, listening to their aspirations, and raising awareness of the national laws and regulations regarding tourism activities.

Encouragingly, the Club’s members have made commitments to protecting the national territorial sovereignty, and voicing protest against cases of distorting information about the truth of Viet Nam’s history and its culture and acts of blighting the prestige of the local tour guide community.

As its operating rules, the Club always closely works with the municipal Tourism Department and other relevant local agencies to detect and handle any matters relating the performance of its member tour guides in a prompt yet effective manner, thereby partly ensuring the city’s image and building a safe and healthy tourism environment for visitors from both home and aboard.