Discipline: Tourism
The major objective of the study was to determine whether the present tour guides working in selected travel agencies in Calamba City, Laguna, are indeed capable on their jobs. The way to determine such is through TESDA certification, self-evaluation, and evaluation by the supervisors.
There were twenty-two (22) tour guides from selected travel agencies in Calamba City who served as respondents in the study. Structured questionnaires both for the tour guides and their supervisors were used for evaluation. Frequency counts and mean were used to measure the degree for the respondents’ tour guiding competency as stated on the TESDA-made questionnaire.
Based on the evaluation made by the respondents on themselves and their supervisors, the respondents were very competent in knowing the tour packages and planning of itineraries. However, they got only average competency on preventive safety and measures, handling customer complaints, and good supplier’s relationship. Overall, both the tour guides’ and their supervisors’ evaluation were rated competent with a general weighted average mean of 3.87 and 3.89 respectively.
In conclusion, it was found out that travel agencies preferred to hire young female tour guides who were
graduates of tourism course. If the respondent-tour guides will take the TESDA training and exam, they are confident to receive National Certification (NC) and are qualified to be called certified tour guides.
The study recommended that travel agencies should request their tour guides to take TESDA training and exam to become certified NC II tour guides. They should also provide monetary and non-monetary incentives to those who will get this certification. These tour guides should also be sent to seminars because this is one of the areas in the evaluation in which they only got average competency.
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