Foreigners are not allowed to work as tour guides in Vietnam.

If foreigners work as tour guides in Vietnam, they will pose many risks to national security, distorting history, culture, etc.

On the afternoon of November 7, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien presented the Draft Law on Tourism (amended).

According to Minister Nguyen Ngoc Thien, tour guide is a profession. To avoid inequality between domestic tour guides and international tour guides, we stipulate that people who are granted international tour guide cards must have a university degree or higher.

Chinese tour guide leads a group of tourists to Linh Ung Pagoda (Da Nang) in July 2016.

However, this regulation leads to the consequence that many people with in-depth experience and foreign language proficiency but without a university degree cannot become international tour guides.

Therefore, Minister Nguyen Ngoc Thien said, to be consistent with reality, the draft Law on Tourism (amended) stipulates tour guides according to the tour program and tour guides at the destination.

Conditions for granting tour guide cards are regulated in a unified and simpler manner, without distinction between domestic and international tour guides, and are only based on the language used when guiding tourists.

The professional qualification requirements for applicants for tour guide cards under tourism programs are adjusted from bachelor's degree in tour guiding to intermediate level in tour guiding.

“This new regulation is expected to be one of the necessary measures to address the shortage of tour guides during the current peak tourist season,” said Minister Nguyen Ngoc Thien.

According to Article 52 of the Draft Law on Tourism (amended), the conditions for granting a tour guide card must meet a number of conditions, including that the tour guide must “have Vietnamese nationality, permanently reside in Vietnam, and have full civil act capacity”. Thus, according to the Draft Law on Tourism (amended), foreigners are not allowed to work as tour guides in Vietnam.

Minister Nguyen Ngoc Thien at the second session of the 14th National Assembly.

This issue was also raised by Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture, Education, Youth, Adolescents and Children Phan Thanh Binh in the Report on the review of the draft Law on Tourism (amended).

According to Mr. Phan Thanh Binh, there is a proposal to add a group of people with foreign nationality who are granted tour guide cards in Vietnam.

However, the National Assembly's Committee on Culture, Education, Youth, Adolescents and Children found that such a regulation would potentially pose a risk of not ensuring national security and social order and safety, and could easily lead to the exploitation of tour guiding activities to distort history, culture, etc., affecting the image of the country and people of Vietnam.

In fact, most countries in the world do not allow foreigners to work as tour guides within their territory.

The review report also recommends that the Drafting Committee classify tour guides according to the tour program into domestic and international tour guides.

This division is not to discriminate against tourists but to ensure professionalism and improve service quality to meet the specific requirements of each type of tourist.

According to VOV