TOURISM REVIEW:THE USE OF under-qualified and inexperienced tour guides in Ireland is becoming an increasing problem, with 90 per cent of Irish tour operators experiencing difficulty recruiting qualified guides last year, according to a new report.
Current training does not meet the range of needs for guides, with a shortage of language skills now a "pressing issue", the review, carried out for the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation, reveals.
The review says there is a shortage of Irish people seeking employment as guides, with recruitment from abroad increasing as a result.
Between 1,000 and 1,300 tour guides will be needed to fill demand this year. The shortage of guides comes as the coach tourism sector is experiencing huge growth, with 356,000 coach-tour passengers in Ireland last year, compared with 227,000 in 2002, an increase of 57 per cent.
About 60 per cent of guides are Irish, while 30 per cent come from western Europe and the balance from further afield.
English is the language most in demand, but demand for continental European languages is rising steeply and currently outstripping supply.
The review, which will be launched by the Minister for Tourism Martin Cullen next Tuesday, says one of the biggest problems is that training does not meet the range of needs for guides.
The review recommends:
• Fáilte Ireland's Further Education and Training Awards Council level-six guide-training be made more widely available;
• greater emphasis be placed on language training for guides;
• an improvement in pay conditions for guides to attract more Irish applicants;
• a campaign be launched to recruit guides from overseas, with an emphasis on sourcing guides with appropriate language skills;
• greater use be made of video and audio guides for day and city tours.
The review says the shortage of tour guides is a "serious constraint" on the development of the coach-tourism sector.
Most guides are self-employed and contracted to incoming tour operators during the coach-tour season, the review found. English is the language most in demand, followed by French, German, Italian, Japanese, Scandinavian languages and Spanish.
Some 24 members of the Irish Tour Operators Association participated in the review.
Of those surveyed, 15 per cent said that they currently use driver-guides, 42 per cent said they recruit all of their guides directly, while 54 per cent said they source some proportion of their guides through agencies.
Guides outside of Ireland have significantly higher pay, the review found. The pay rates published by the Association of Approved Tour Guides of Ireland for last year was €130 a day, or €160 for a language guide.
This compared with €243 a day in the UK, with extra for a language guide, and €258 plus VAT in France, with extra for a language guide in that country.
The biggest coach tourism market is Britain, which accounted for almost 150,000 tourists in 2006, followed by north America, with 124,000 in that year.