Delegates from the USA, UK and South Africa

8th World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations Convention 1999

Hong Kong 1st-5th February 1999

Report by APTG Representative Jenny Townsend

Sadly, Jenny Townsend died on 28 December 1999.
She is greatly missed by her colleagues.

This page is a short summary. Most of the links on this page are to a fuller account of the Convention.

THE 8TH WFTGA CONVENTION was held at the Kowloon Shangri-La hotel, Hong Kong, hosted by the Hong Kong Association of Registered Tour Co ordinators (HARTCO).

There were 206 participants from 26 different countries, (including 52 participants from USA!):

Australia, Austria, Canada, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Namibia, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, UK and USA sent delegates. Iceland and Denmark had a proxy vote.

During the Delegates Meeting, new members APTG, the Scottish Association of Tourist Guides, Morocco and Namibia were formally welcomed to the World Federation.
The President of the World Federation, Ms Titina Loizides gave her report on the activities and achievements of the Federation over the last two years, in particular, the setting up and continuation of a training course for guide trainers, Training the Trainers. Negotiations are currently underway for a permanent Training Centre for Guide Trainers in Cyprus.
The welcoming committee included members of the Hong Kong Government and the Executive Director of the Hong Kong Tourist Association, Mrs Amy Chan.

Tour Guiding Into the New Millennium - The Tourist Guide/The Human Link was the Convention theme.

There were excellent lectures on eg Eco-tourism and levels of guide training up to Super High rank. Fascinating statistics and predictions were provided by the World Tourism Organisation, which has launched a new Tourism study: 2020 Vision.

Tourism in China

Mr Li Lei, Deputy Division Director, China National Tourism Association gave a lecture on Tourism in China.

International benchmark

An international benchmark study was carried out to examine practices elsewhere in the world. (The FEG definition of guiding was quoted in the lecture.)

Workshops were offered on many subjects, eg Cultural awareness, Self business skills and management, the responsibility of a Tourist Guide Association, group psychology, the emotional and psychological stability of tourist guides and International Day of the Guide 2000.

Hong Kong guides took convention participants on several tours - a Fung Shui tour - to the top of Victoria Peak - to the New Territories.

The next World Federation Convention in 2001 will be in Israel, where the First WFTGA Convention was held in 1987.