Does Nepal need more trekking guides?

 Although there are more than 22,000 certified trekking guides who have lost their jobs, Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM) has announced it will soon hold a training programme for more than 1,800 new applicants. This decision of NATHM, meanwhile, has disappointed the existing trekking guides.

Along with the licensed trekking guides there are 4,000 mountain guides and other support staff who have been unemployed for about a year as the tourism industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Likewise, 5,000 tour guides and 3,500 local guides have no jobs at present. And in such a situation this decision made by NATHM to train more people seems a bit awkward.

In fact, there are guides who have had to literally look for alternative jobs as there are a negligible number of foreign travellers visiting Nepal.

"In such a dire situation, the concerned authorities should be trying to provide help to the existing guides who have lost their livelihood rather than training more people,” says Jangbu Sherpa, acting president of Trekking Guide Association of Nepal (TGAN), adding that NATHM's aim to train more people is strange. "It is clear that NATHM is more concerned about generating funds without considering the bigger social problems that it could lead to. NATHM should be more focused on developing manpower that is better trained and not on the number of guides available," he states.

Likewise, President of Tourist Guide Association of Nepal (TURGAN), Badri Nepal, says the country has enough number of guides. "Just last year for the Visit Nepal 2020 campaign, we trained a very good number of guides. At the moment there are over 2,500 active tour guides and we do not intend to operate any tourist guide training programme for the next three years,” he mentioned. He opined that there should be some refreshment training for the existing guides.

However, Administration Officer at NATHM, Ratan Saud, mentioned that the number of guides available now is not enough. “I don't have data on the number of guides actively working in the trekking sector but I assume there could be around 7,000 guides."

“Sooner or later we will have tourists visiting the country once the situation normalises so we have to have sufficient number of guides," he added. "Our target is to train more than 1,800 tourist guides in fiscal year 2077/78 and we will be doing so in shifts,” Saud informed. “It will be a month-long training and we plan to produce quality guides.”

Both Sherpa and Nepal say that the existing training programmes are outdated and need to be more practical based.

However, Saud of NATHM argues that they do conduct the training based on feedback from previous candidates and experienced guides. “In fact, we updated our course in 2072 BS,” he informed. “Moreover, we also have to be careful about our course being affordable for all because as soon as we add more practical classes the fees is going to rise significantly,” he added. At present, each candidate has to pay Rs 7,000 for the training.

Sherpa and Nepal also lament that NATHM did not coordinate with them before announcing their training programme.

“A tour guide’s position is equivalent to that of an officer as per the government’s rule and that is the reason why any person who wants to apply for a tourist guide licence must be a graduate in any field of study,” says Nepal. However, he informs that there are plans to change the requirement whereby an applicant must hold a Master’s degree in any field.

Meanwhile, Bijita Shakya, a student at NATHM, says that since they already have to learn about everything related to tourism during their graduation there is no point in having to again undergo a training to qualify as a guide. “There has to be a provision whereby a tourism student does not have to take any training to be a guide,” she adds.

Shakya further states that to encourage students to study tourism related courses they should automatically qualify as a guide as soon as they graduate. “If any graduate can apply to be a guide then what is the point in studying tourism related subjects.”

NATHM officer Saud informed that two years of trekking experience is mandatory to apply for a trekking guide licence and the applicant must also furnish a recommendation letter from trekking companies that are members of the Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN). He mentions that there are reports that some applicants have been submitting recommendation letters that are not genuine but we have not conducted an investigation into the matter as all applicants have letters from a registered trekking agency.

Besides NATHM, the Nepal Mountaineering Academy has also been conducting training for last two years. Both academies produce 2,000 to 4,000 trekking guides every year.