Volume 5, Issue 1, January – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology

ISSN No:-2456-2165

The Shortage of Tour Guides in Vietnam:

Evidences, Reasons and Solutions
Thi Lanh Vu, Professor
Duy Tan University, Vietnam

Abstract:- This paper tries to explore the practical wrong information about destinations to tourists, forcing
situation of tour guides to demonstrate that the shortage tourists to pay higher price through “Zero Tour” disguise or
of tour guides impacts the sustainable destination using illegal certification. If this situation is still happening,
management in Vietnam. It is shown that tour guides at it will cause long-term negative consequences on the future
many attractions in Vietnam like Danang, Ho Chi Minh of tourism. This paper will analyze what is the real
and Hanoi city are insufficient in both foreign language problem, clarify where it roots from, how it impacts the
ability and occupational skills, therefore leading to the operation of good travel agencies and tourist destination
gap between the long-term tourism development and image. Some solutions are suggested for Vietnam travel
labor forces. To achieve this objective, the author has administration to give the effective management in
conducted the qualitative analysis, discussions with Vietnam.
members of Tour guide Association in Danang and
managers of Viettravel agency. By analyzing the II. LITERATURE REVIEW
reliable data, the paper will look into the deep roots of
that situation and suggest some solutions for Vietnam to A. The Role of Tour Guides in Tourism Industry
improve the ability of tour guides in the future. Tour guide is defined as a person hired to guide
tourists, help them to satisfy their needs and interest. By
Key words:- Vietnamese Tour Guides, Shortage of Human involving all activities related to tourists’ journey, from
Resource, Impacts. their arrival, tour activities and departure, tour guide is
considered as a “buffer” among tourists, the social
I. INTRODUCTION environment arranging transportation, interpreting,
handling problems, insulating travelers from difficulties
Vietnam has recently emerged as one of the most and making the environment safe for tourists because they
attractive tourism destinations in the world supported by act as ‘intermediaries’ between tourists and the ‘unknown’
natural resources, historical and heritage values, reasonable environment (International Association of Tour Managers -
price and stable political environment. In 2019, The United IATM). A professional tour guide not only delivers the
Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has listed information but also presents it in an interesting and sincere
Vietnam as one of ten fastest-growing tourism destinations way in order to give an unforgettable experience for
in the world. According to the data from Vietnam National tourists, enhance destination image and accomplish the
Administration of Tourism, Vietnam is the midst of tourism goals of responsible tourism. A tour guide represents as a
boom for three recent years. In 2018, there were 15.5 destination ambassador who helps tourists to engage in
million foreign tourists coming to Vietnam, increased by local culture, activities, customs and history. To some
19.9% compared to 2017. The total revenue of tourism extent, tour guides has considerable contribution to the
industry reached to 620,000 billion VND, increased by tourism development in terms of economic and social
21.4% in 2017. It is predicted that Vietnam will served values.
around 18 million foreign tourists, 85 million domestic
visitors and total revenue will be approximately 700,000 As shown in the research of Tosun and Temizkan
billion VND in 2020. With the expansion of tourism (2004), tour guides take over the big duties and
industry and the increasing demand of tourism companies responsibilities in the tourism industry. Their role is
result in the shortage of skilled human resource in complex, diverse and multifaced. Black & Weiler (2005)
hospitality and tourism. As the main player of tourism field, has listed 10 specific roles of tour guides while Black (in:
tour guides play an important role in any tourism Pastorelli, 2003) has identified the following roles: as
development and are directly linked to the level of information provider, social facilitator, cultural host,
satisfaction and retention of tourists as well as the motivator of conservation values, interpreter of the natural
destination image (Mehmet & Zafer, 2015). The and cultural environment, people mover. Other roles
competence of tour guides has vital effects on the tourist including teacher or instructor, safety officer, ambassador
behavioral patterns as well as sustainable tourist for one's country, public relations, representative or
destination. company representative, entertainer, problem solver,
confidant and counsellor. To fulfill their mission, tour
In Vietnam, the shortage of tour guides is putting guides should master immense knowledge related to local
pressure on the long-term growth and expansion of tourism culture, heritage and multi-skills such as foreign language,
industry. It is a fact that under-qualified tour guides are communication and problem-solving.
harming Vietnam tourism in many ways such as delivering

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Volume 5, Issue 1, January – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
Despite widely acknowledged significant roles in emphasized that challenges of employment in tourism are
tourism system, guides still “represent a largely underrated, characterized by the high seasonal workforce fluctuation,
undervalued and underutilized human resource” (Dioko; insufficient ratio of highly educated personnel, the system
Unakul, 2005). Many previous researches identified that of education aiming for tourist economy is below quality.
tour guides see themselves mainly as only information In Vietnam, only 42 per cent of these workers are trained in
givers. According to the research of Holloway 1981, there tourism, 38 per cent have moved from other sectors and 20
were 176 American participants of a sightseeing tour, 90% per cent have had no official training. This means the
of them selected “information giver and educator”, whereas industry lacks skilled and experienced employees and has
other options such as “cultural broker and mediator”, too many unskilled workers. Each year, tourism schools
“leader and organizer”, “escort and caretaker” and meet only 60 per cent of the sector’s demand, leading to a
“ambassador, PR and destination “protector'” had 2.4% serious shortage of tourism human resources.
each. In addition, many guides though that the job of a
guide is not particularly serious and even not so creative. Raymond, John, Barry & Patrick’s paper (2014)
Thus, they do not attempt to meet their standard tours such proposed options to reduce the situation of labor shortage in
rarely focused on customers, their needs, motivation, organizations including using employees in overtime,
wishes, preferences, cultural background, educational level temporary employees, outsourcing, retrained transfers,
– all being the key factors of individual tourist experiences turnover reductions, new external hires and technological
(Rabotić, 2009a). Weiler and Ham (2002) identified that innovation. Each option has benefits in short-term or long-
tourists share the same opinion because they generally do term periods, but put constraints on the human resource in
not expect much from the guided tour and guides, but only organizations. To overcome the situation of labor shortage,
to spend several hours or days with minimum discomfort, managers should forecast the labor needs of organizations
some information and entertainment. Therefore, tour guides to choose the right options, minimize the negative impacts
tend to resort to fabricated tales, narrate unverified stories, on human resource in the long term.
the practice dating back from the ancient times to make the
story more interesting. III. THE SHORTAGE OF TOUR GUIDES IN
VIETNAM
B. Human Resource Shortage in Tourism Industry
Tourism has nowadays been one of the most A. The practice of tour guide shortage in Vietnam
important economic activities and the non-smoke industry. Vietnam tourism has gradually affirmed its position in
It serves people and relies mainly on labor forces. To gain the country’s socio-economic structure by providing new
the competitive advantage among competitors, tourism tourism products, the various services and the significant
companies invest more on human and consider human growth of international tourists. It is evident that many
resource as the most important asset. The competitiveness tourism destinations such as Ha Long bay, My Khe beach
depends mainly on how to ensure high standards of quality (Danang city) or Phong Nha Cave (Quang Binh province)
and efficiency which satisfy tourists’ changing needs. has been viewed as must-go destinations in 2019 by
While their behavior pattern, decision-making process and international news agencies. The Vietnamese local
response are diverse and unpredictable, companies have to authorities and government are increasingly aware of the
conduct training and developmental programs to improve importance of investment for tourism attractions. In the
employees’ skills, knowledge and abilities. All members near future, the government will pour around 36.1 trillion
from the top to bottom levels have to make their efforts to VND (more than 1.55 billion USD) in 19 tourism projects
contribute to the organizational goals. In a tourism in the central provinces such as Quang Binh, Quang Tri,
company, top managers rarely contact directly to tourists Quang Nam, Thua Thien - Hue, Binh Dinh, Ninh Thuan
while tour guides work at the front line, directly contact and Da Nang City to boost tourism development. Because
with tourists. The assistance from tour guides can help of the increasing growth of tourists, especially international
tourists to overcome the language barrier. In addition, tourists, the demand of tour guides increase rapidly. In
interpretation or mediation from guides will support 2018, there were 23,792 people are issued tour guide
tourists’ physical comforts, cultural understanding and licenses, in which 15,080 international tour guides, 8,450
heritage adaptation. Thus, any shortage of tour guides in domestic tour guides and 262 on-site tour guides. In August
terms of quantity and quality has negative impacts to 2019, the total tour guides reached 25,500. Although the
tourism industry. tour guides have witnessed a continuous growth, the labor
forces are insufficient to the growth of tourists. Nowadays,
It is demonstrated that human resource in tourism the number of tour guides only meets about 15% the
industry has faced up with many challenges, especially demand from domestic tourists and 40% from foreign
regarding to shortage of the quality of manpower. Qiu tourists.
Zhang, H. & Wu, E (2004) listed drawbacks to human
resource development including: lack of qualified staff at According to Vietnam’s Tourism Law 2017, tour
both operational and managerial levels, high staff turnover guides are divided into three categories: domestic tour
rates, the unwillingness of university graduates to enter the guides who only serve domestic (Vietnamese) tourists,
industry, and the gap between what is taught in school, international tour guides who can serve both domestic and
college and the realities of the industry itself. Anđelka foreign tourists arriving to Vietnam and guide Vietnamese
Buneta, Draženka Ćosić & Dušan Tomašević (2016) visiting other countries, and on-site tour guides who only

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Volume 5, Issue 1, January – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
serve tourists at the certain tourism destination or area. The proportional to the number of foreign tourists coming from
shortage of tour guides in each type of tour guides is different markets. Comparing the figures from the Chart 1
various as well. and 2, it is seen that China and South Korea are two main
international tourist markets to Vietnam. Chinese and
Firstly, Vietnam is facing with the serious shortage of Taiwanese tourists rank number one, accounting 35.09%,
tour guides who can communicate in unpopular languages the second is South Korean amounting to 24.8%. In
such as Spanish, Thai, French or Italian. It is a fact that contrast, the number of tour guides speaking in Chinese is
English is the most popular foreign language in Vietnam only 25.52% and in Korean is 1.95% respectively. Tourists
and the tour guides can speak English account to 51.85%. arriving from English speaking countries like America,
In contrast, tour guides can speak languages such as England and Canada are less than 8.0% while tour guides
Spanish, German or Thai are rare, only less than 2%. using English amount to more than 50%.
Notably, the number of international tour guides is not

Chart 1:- Tour Guides Using Foreign Languages

(Source: The Administration of Vietnam Tourism, August 2019)

Chart 2: International Tourists Visiting Vietnam until August 2019

(Source: The Administration of Vietnam tourism, August 2019)

Secondly, because of the increasing labor demands in the new employees or even have to cancel the tours and
tourism industry, many people try to work as tour guides compensate customers. Other important aspect is the
illegally. Each year, there are above 200 Vietnamese tour phenomenon of foreign tour guides act illegally in Vietnam.
guides are identified to use the fake certifications such as Many tour guides from South Korea and China come to
fake qualifications to take a legal tour guide license. When Vietnam and work as tour guides without getting any legal
these cases are identified, they are forced to stop the job, permission. It is demonstrated that the demand of Korean
however resulting to increase the costs for travel agencies. tour guides in Danang (2019) are around 5,000 while the
Because companies have to reset the travel schedule, find official number of international tour guides speaking in

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Volume 5, Issue 1, January – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
Korean is only 4,000. Thus, the rest is Koreans coming to encourage students who do not study tourism to work as
Danang and working as tour guides. It can be reason for tour guides. The number of tour guides is increasing but the
issues such as delivering incorrect information about quality is not improved. Moreover, when people do not
destinations, illegal immigrant. have tourism background, they lack basic knowledge
related to tourism development, working ethics in tourism
Thirdly, the quality of tour guides is below the and skills needed to work as tour guides. In addition, the
standards in term of professional skills and attitudes. ineffectiveness of management in identifying and punishing
Actually, the skills of tour guides do not meet the demands the cheating cases, leading to the quality of tour guides
of travel agencies and tourists. Tourism markets require cannot meet the requirements of market.
more foreign languages, soft skills, professionalism,
leadership and management skills, information technology, Last but not least, the human resource training and
highly specialized skills while new tour guides only are development at businesses is underestimated. The training
equipped technical skills, and little practical skills. There is at businesses is conducted based on the transferring
the gap between vocational training programs with experiences rather than professional training. For senior
Vietnam’s Tourism Occupational Standards (VTOS). In managerial positions, businesses tend to hire experts from
addition, tour guides have not yet really understood the outside rather than investing on the current employees.
meaning of sustainable tourism concept, thus they tend to Professional tour guides do not feel motivated, thus
focus on short-term goals such as how much they earn on businesses cannot retain them for a long time.
each tour without concerning for the long-term
development of tourism industry. C. Solutions
Contemporarily, travel agencies can hire freelance
Fourthly, there is the shortage of on-site tour guides in tour guides to meet the demands of tourists. They can
many sports and adventure tourism destinations in Da Lat, encourage other people to work as tour guides by paying
Ha Long, Hue, Da Nang and Ha Giang. Sports and more and improving the working environment. However,
adventure tourism are attractive to tourists, but quite new in this option will increase costs for companies.
Vietnam. It requires tour guides to have intense knowledge
related to kinds of sports and entertainment. Unfortunately, For the long term, to resolve the shortage of tour
the tourism infrastructure for these types of tourism is not guides, there is a need of cooperation among different
completed. The planning and design should be stakeholders, from government, functional agencies, travel
implemented in near future to attract tour guides in this agencies and schools:
area. Until now, there has been lacking of tour guides for
these types of tourism in terms of quality and quantity.  The government should enact legal documents to
manage and guide travel agencies. It is suggested to
B. The Reasons behind that Situation deliver the Code of Conduct in tourism industry, thus
The first reason is the weak cooperation between tour guides have to follow the principles.
schools and tourism industry. Training in universities and Administration of Tourism should cooperate with local
colleges focuses on higher knowledge rather than practical agencies to manage travel agencies and punish the cases
skills. Moreover, there is not coherent relationship between violating laws.
universities and travel agencies. The collaboration  In the long term, the government should issue
documents are not very practical. While students have supportive policies such as scholarships for students
demands to engage more in tourism industry (working as who choose to study tourism for their future career.
collaborators, part-time employees), the working  Administration of Tourism should empower
environment is not very advantageous. Businesses only Department of Tourism and destination managers to
need the support of students at the certain points of time, manage on-site tour guides. It is necessary to plan
for example at the busy seasons. Even students can have tourism destinations for sports and adventure, follow the
chances to work at the businesses, their roles are still not guidance of Decree 168/2017/NĐ-CP.
important as well. For example, travel agencies cannot give  Travel agencies should improve the training and
students chances to guide tours because they have not yet development to motivate and retain professional tour
been issued the tour guide licenses. These barriers cause guides. In addition, managers should create the
difficulty in improving the quality of human resources in information-sharing network among tour guides, thus
tourism industry. they can cooperate and experience in the new
environment.
Another reason comes from the ineffectiveness of  There is a need to improve the link between training
legal framework. According to Tourism Law 2017, the schools and travel agencies based on common benefits.
standard for issuing tour guide licenses is easier than Schools should invite experts from businesses to share
Tourism Law 2005. For example, to achieve the the practical experiences. Thus, learners have chances
international tour guide licenses, people only get vocational to access the working places and businesses do not have
college degree instead of bachelor degree (no minimum to retrain the human resource.
requirements of qualifications to domestic tour guides),  It is necessary to upgrade the capacity of training
then they finish the 3-month training course for tour guides schools such as training materials, teachers and experts,
to receive a tour guide license. The easing of policy aims to

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Volume 5, Issue 1, January – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
adjust the training programs to meet the changing needs [7]. Qiu Zhang, H. and Wu, E. (2004), "Human resources
of working environment. issues facing the hotel and travel industry in
 It is essential to apply the technology to manage tour China", International Journal of Contemporary
guides network effectively. The QR code should be Hospitality Management, Vol. 16 No. 7, pp. 424-428.
integrated on tour guide licenses and software to [8]. Research, Vol. 12, pp. 377-402.Vietnam National
manage, check, prevent and detect the cheating cases or Administration of Tourism.
using fake versions. Ooi, C-S. (2002), Cultural Tourism & Tourism
 Finally, there is a need to propaganda the regulations Cultures: The Business of Mediating Experiences in
and requirements in Tourism Law 2017, thus tour Copenhagen and Singapore, Copenhagen:
guides make sense of following the legal principles. Copenhagen Business School Press.
[9]. Rabotić, B (2009b) Turističko vođenje u savremenom
IV. CONCLUSION turizmu (unpublished doctoral dissertation);
Univerzitet Singidunum, Beograd.
Vietnam has gradually become one of the potential [10]. Raymond Noe, John Hollenbeck, Barry Gerhart &
and attractive tourism destinations in Asia. Tourism is Patrick Wright (2014), Human resource management:
predicted to be a key sector of Vietnam economy with a gaining a competitive advantage, McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
competitive market in the years coming. Vietnam [11]. Weiler, B.; Ham, S.H. (2002) “Tour Guide Training:
government has set the strategy to make Vietnam become a A Model for Sustainable Capacity Building in
special and attractive destination in South East Asia and Developing Countries”. Journal of Sustainable
tourism industry will be in a professional and effective Tourism, Vol. 10 No.1, pp. 52-69.
manner until 2030. However, Vietnam has faced with the
shortage of high-quality human resources who get
sufficient knowledge, skills and attitudes. The insufficiency
of tour guides in terms of quality and quantity has put more
constraints on the sustainable development of Vietnam
tourism. The reasons come from the ineffectiveness of legal
framework and management; the inefficient cooperation of
business and schools; and the strategy focusing on short-
term of companies. These can be resolved through
contemporary and long –term options. The most important
thing is the cooperation among government, local
authorities, schools and businesses.

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