JEDDAH, 5 August 2006 — Although there are plenty of tourist activities held year round in the Kingdom, many complain about the absence of women tour guides in the country’s museums and exhibitions. They have called on the education sector to train girls to be able to take up professions in the tourism sector.
Sana Ali Al-Sayed, a professor of technical education at King Saud University in Riyadh, points out that there is a strong need for women tour guides in museums, science centers, and art and cultural exhibitions. Sana believes this will open the door for hundreds of employment opportunities for women graduates.
“We need women tour guides who have specialist knowledge about the field they would be working in. For example, if a guide is working in a science museum then she should have proficient scientific knowledge and preferably be a science graduate,” said Al-Sayed.
Sana added that it would be better if the guide had training in people skills and in communicating with members of the public.
“This would enable them to deal with visitors from all walks of life,” she explained, adding that guides should be keen, tolerant and willing to deal with people in a professional manner and be able to speak loudly and clearly.
Rifah Turkemani, researcher in the field of training, said that having a process where women can take active roles in the tourism sector would be a brilliant opportunity for them to prove themselves in history, geography and art related fields where graduates have a hard time in getting jobs.
As a teacher, Sumayah Al-Muharb expressed her disappointment that tourism courses in both the private and government education institutes only cater for men. “The need for women tour guides exceeds the need for male tour guides. Because of the lack of female tour guides there is a decrease in the numbers of women visiting tourist attractions,” she said.
History graduate Manal Othman said that there is a large number of graduates that are unemployed and could be given training and utilized in the field of tourism. “The first step is to provide training,” she said.
Manal feels that if women were given active roles as tour guides then the Kingdom would see more school trips to museums and the like — something she says that would improve the quality of education.
A number of women graduates expressed their willingness to work as guides.
Najla Al-Qahtani is a history graduate and says she would be more than happy to work as a tour guide.
Jamila Mohammed has previously worked as a tour guide for a company that organizes school and university trips. “It’s a fun job and one of the best I’ve ever done,” she said.
Jamila says that as a tour guide she lacked a number of skills though she was able to pick them up later. She says that having training centers would be useful in helping guides deal with many emotional obstacles.
