Bill on Tourist Guides and Travel Agencies is in the General Assembly of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Bill on Tourist Guides is in the General Assembly of the Turkish Grand National Assembly
Negotiations on the Tourist Guide Profession Law, which includes regulations regarding tourist guides and travel agencies, and the Proposal Law on Amending the Law on Travel Agencies and the Association of Travel Agencies have been completed.
On the entire bill proposal Speaking on behalf of the Saadet Party group, Group Chairman Selçuk Özdağ Stating that Turkey’s income from tourism last year was announced as 46.5 billion dollars and the number of visitors as 56.7 million, he said: “Although the number of tourists coming to our country is this much, why is our tourism income so low compared to these numbers?” asked.
“I NEED TO STATE THAT IT WILL CAUSE SIGNIFICANT NATIONAL SECURITY PROBLEMS”
Özdağ stated that, according to the bill, there will be no requirement to graduate from associate, bachelor’s or master’s degree programs of tourist guiding departments of universities, or to complete a national or regional tourist guiding training program for those who have graduated from other departments other than the tourist guiding department of universities at at least a bachelor’s level. Özdağ said, “To become a tourist guide. “I need to state that easing the conditions and narrowing the areas of responsibility will cause serious national security problems,” he said.
Noting that the obligation to have a tourist guide during the tour has been eliminated with the proposal, Özdağ said that if the proposal becomes law, it will not be possible to follow what is said during the tours, the fight against illegal tours will fail with the weakening of the control mechanism, terrorism and missionary activities will increase in places where there is no control, and as a result, the current bill will bring about a national security problem. .
“THE GUIDES’ ACTIVITY FIELD IS WANTED TO Narrow DOWN TO MUSEUMS”
İYİ Party Antalya Deputy Aykut KayaStating that there are three issues that need to be focused on, he stated that the first of these is to pave the way for guiding without knowing a foreign language, the second is to make it easier for graduates of the archeology and art history department to become guides, and the third is to remove the obligation to have a guide on the bus and introduce museum guidance.
Kaya noted that there is a desire to narrow down the field of activity of guides and reduce them to museums, and on the other hand, he stated that the number of guides has increased more than necessary.
MHP Giresun Deputy Ertuğrul Gazi KonalNoting that tourism is one of Turkey’s most strategic economic sectors, he stated that the tourism sector has become one of the most powerful diplomacy tools of countries in the globalizing world.
Konal explained that with the bill, the conditions for admission to the profession of tourist guides have been updated, and special regulations have been introduced for issues such as the promotion of strategic language skills and the acceptance of art history and archeology graduates into the profession, and made the following evaluation:
“This will allow Turkey’s tourist potential to be evaluated in a wider range and will ensure the more effective promotion of our cultural riches on the global platform. “It is also aimed to increase the quality of tourist guide certificate programs and practice trips.”
Konal stated that another important aspect of the proposal is the prevention of referrals made without the knowledge and approval of customers during shopping tour arrangements and said, “This situation includes increasing the criminal sanctions against tourist guides and travel agencies. “With this regulation, it is aimed to increase transparency and reliability in the tourism sector, and to protect the satisfaction of visitors and the reputation of our country,” he said. Bill on Tourist Guides is in the General Assembly of the Turkish Grand National Assembly
DEM Party Van Deputy Zülküf Uçar Arguing that the bill proposes to narrow down the employment opportunities for tourism workers while considering the profit opportunities of tourism companies, he said, “It virtually removes the requirement for tourist guides to know at least one foreign language, opening up a wide area for capital owners to find cheap labor.” It creates profit opportunities for capital owners by eliminating the necessity of having a tourist guide in every tour vehicle. “Tourism worker guides are being pushed into the army of the unemployed,” he said.
CHP Aydin Deputy Hüseyin YıldızStating that Turkey has become the most expensive country in the world, he said, “Today, Turkish citizens do not have the chance to go on a week-long holiday anywhere in Turkey.”
“WE DO NOT TAKE OFF ANY OF OUR TOURIST GUIDE BROTHERS FROM HIS BREAD OR HIS JOB”
Hüseyin Yayman, Chairman of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Digital Media Commission and AK Party Hatay Deputy, stated that the main purpose of the regulation is to bring Turkish tourism to the forefront in global competition and to achieve the 2028 targets in the field of tourism.
Explaining that 8 regulations have been made in the laws and regulations regarding tourist guides so far, Yayman said, “What is intended to be done here is very clear. There is no way to force anyone out of their profession, the legal obligation will continue as a de facto obligation. Those who wish will still be able to have a tourist guide, but this will no longer be a legal obligation. “We will make an arrangement like in Spain, France and Italy,” he said.
“Our aim is to restructure Turkish tourism, update the outdated legislation, bring tourism to 4.0, and establish a tourism ecosystem that complies with universal norms,” said Yayman, adding:
“12. There is a target set before us in the Development Plan. This goal is the fact that Turkey is an open air museum. Significant breakthroughs need to be made in this regard, the tourism market needs to be expanded. Issues such as increasing the number of accommodation days and beds were one of the ancient problems of tourism. It was a matter of expanding tourism from just coastal and sea tourism to 7 regions. Some arrangements were being made to achieve these goals. It was done yesterday, it was done today, it will be done tomorrow. We do not deprive anyone, our tourist guide brothers, of their livelihood or work here. We just want to bring the norm of tourist guides to universal norms. On the other hand, we are working to establish a professional association and raise professional standards.”
After completing the discussions on the entire proposal, Deputy Speaker of the Parliament Sırrı Süreyya Önder closed the meeting to meet at 14.00 today.
