VietNamNet Bridge – Travel companies in HCMC are in dire need of tour guides who can speak Japanese and Korean fluently to serve visitors from the two northeastern Asian countries.

Korean tourists pose for photographs in front of the Reunification Palace in HCMC. Travel companies in HCMC are desperately searching for tour guides who can speak Japanese and Korean fluently to serve their guests from the two northeastern Asian countries – Photo: Dao Loan

Statistics showed HCMC, the biggest tourism center in Vietnam, had had 150 Japanese-speaking and 12 Korean-speaking tour guides certified as of late last year.

Numbers of Japanese and Korean visitors are large. According to the General Statistics Office, more than 612,600 Japanese came to Vietnam in January-November, up 3.5% year-on-year, while Korean arrivals soared 30.5% to around 998,240 in the period.

In addition, more Vietnamese have traveled to Japan in recent months, so local travel firms have aggressively searched for Japanese-speaking guides to take Vietnamese to Japan, making life tougher for travel firms to employ qualified tour guides to serve their Japanese guests in Vietnam.

Many travel agencies told the HCMC Department of Tourism that Japanese and Korean-speaking guides often demand high wages due to a serious undersupply of guides.

Nguyen Minh Quyen, chairman of the tour guide club under the HCMC Tourism Association, said tour guides proficient in Japanese and Korean are in severely short supply.

Quyen said local tourism companies pay US$30-40 for Japanese-speaking guides each in a one-day tour program but the wage might be higher for seasoned and part-time guides. But some freelance guides would unilaterally cancel their signed contracts with travel firms if they are paid higher by other firms.

SGT