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Dubai wants more tour guides, and the best way is to get started at the College of Tourism.

Dubai: Dubai College of Tourism (DCT), part of the Department of Economy and Tourism (DET), is ramping up efforts to increase the number of professional tour guides to cater to Dubai’s diverse visitor profile.

The college runs a year-round training programme for tour guides with the aim of helping prospective candidates obtain a tour guide license, which is a prerequisite for those interested in taking up this occupation. The training is delivered online and designed to make the process of getting the Dubai tour guide license as convenient as possible, while teaching participants how to correctly present Dubai to international visitors.

As Dubai continues to lead global tourism recovery with campaigns to sustain its global appeal in both existing and emerging source markets, DCT wants to create a pool of tour guides with specific language skills such as for Portuguese, Spanish, Bulgarian, Serbian, Albanian, Slovakian, Czech, Poland, Romanian and Hungarian. Essa Bin Hadher, General Manager, Dubai College of Tourism, said: “With the steady increase in global travellers making Dubai their destination of choice and with the industry continuing to regain its vibrancy, it is crucial to deliver exceptional visitor experiences across the board to make the city the world’s most preferred and visited destination”

“It is important to develop a knowledgeable and well-rounded workforce including professional tour guides from different nationalities to enable them to confidently impart the correct knowledge and information about the emirate to tourists from around the world.”

About the programme
The training programme is available in English and Mandarin, and to enrol, one has to meet certain requirements, which are listed on the online training platform. On the successful completion of the programme, applicants will receive a digital certificate and a tour guide license that can be renewed every two years.

Successful participants will have the opportunity to start their own tour company or work for a travel company as a permanent or freelance tour guide. So far, over 1,100 professionals have completed the 21-hour course. The tour guides are from 80 different nationalities including 158 guides from India, 192 from Pakistan, 221 from Egypt, 42 from the Russian Federation, 32 from Brazil and 26 from the Philippines. DCT also have a total of 78 Emirati tour guides, 39 of which have an active valid license.