With the massive increase in tourist arrivals from the Republic of Korea and Japan in the past few years a crisis is brewing – a shortage of tour guides speaking Korean and Japanese. 
In the 11 months leading up to November Vietnam received nearly 290,000 Koreans and 300,000 Japanese, a 45% and 25% year-on-year rise respectively.

Together they accounted for a fifth of all foreign arrivals in the country. But only 5% of Vietnamese tour guides speak Japanese and far fewer, Korean, a recent survey by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) found.

Some travel companies break rules and hire Japanese and Koreans to work as tour guides. The country’s laws require tour guides to be of Vietnamese nationality and permanently reside here.

Hiring foreigners

To overcome the problem, the Hanoi People’s Committee has urged the VNAT to seek government permission to hire foreigners as tour guides.

“[Japanese and Korean] are still rare languages in Vietnam,” director of the Hanoi Tourism Department, Nguyen Quang Lan, said.

“Hiring Koreans and Japanese as tour guides will help serve the increasing numbers of tourists from these nations,” he said.

A proposal put forward by the People’s Committee calls for cooperating with the embassies of other nations to organize courses on Vietnamese history and culture for prospective foreign tour guides. After completing these courses, the foreign guides will accompany visitors along with Vietnamese tour guides.

A VNAT official said the proposal was under consideration.

(Source: VnExpress – Compiled by Thu Thuy