2010 tour guides learn French
Kulani Mavunda
25 April 2006Tour guides in Mpumalanga province are learning to speak French, with lessons in other European languages planned ahead of the 2010 Football World Cup.
Provincial economic development and planning minister William Lubisi told a meeting of the Federated Hospitality Association of SA (Fedhasa) on Monday that receptionists, petrol attendants, taxi drivers and other frontline representatives should also be prepared for the soccer showpiece.
"Very soon we will be enrolling our tour guides for lessons in foreign languages in preparation for the 2010 World Cup," Lubisi said.
Good impressions
"We call upon all representatives of different companies and institutions represented at this gathering to follow suit and train their frontline staff about the worth of our province."
He said frontline workers created either a good or bad impression for visitors.
"While managers are working on strategic visions, it is the foot soldier on the ground who either kills or make a success of those visions."
'Knowledgeable'
Lubisi said his department had created a training programme that included foreign language courses, the retraining of existing guides to meet the challenges of South Africa, and awareness campaigns aimed at tour operators and other product owners.
"My department is also engaged in a programme to produce a critical mass of knowledgeable tour guides," Lubisi said.
About 33 new black tourist guides are trained each year in Mpumalanga to try balance the ratio of black and white guides in the province.
Familiar language
Thirty-three black local tour guides have already been trained to speak French, and will next be learning German, Portuguese and Chinese.
"Research found that the majority of our tourists speak French and it is more accommodating if their hosts speak a familiar language," said a spokesperson for the department, Smanga Shongwe.
The guides were taught basic French by Alliance Française teachers who gave lessons in White River and Secunda.
Source: BuaNews
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