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Debate on Obligation to Guide on the Bus

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Debate on Obligation to Guide on the Bus

Criticism from tourism professional Recep Yavuz to the removal of the “Obligation to have a guide on the bus”: Towards Erik Dalı Tourism Another criticism of the draft prepared for the Travel Agencies and Association of Travel Agencies Law No. 1618 came from tourism professional Recep Yavuz. Recep Yavuz wrote an article about the losses that will be caused by the regulation regarding the “Removal of the Obligation to Have a Guide on Tour Buses”. Written by tourism professional Recep Yavuz on his blog“Towards Plum Branch Tourism” The article titled is as follows:

TOWARDS ERIK DALI TOURISM

The request for revision in the Travel Agencies Law No. 1618 is a justified request. It is in the interest of the sector to adapt the half-century-old law, which was implemented in the first days of our country’s tourism, to contemporary conditions and to bring it to a level that will carry the sector for perhaps another half century. Both the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and TÜRSAB are currently working on this issue and shaping draft legislative proposals. Although there are significant differences of opinion between these two institutions on some items, approximately 70% of both studies are the same or similar. I put the discussions on both drafts on hold to share later; There is a common view in both drafts that aims to completely change the tourist guiding profession. “There is no obligation to have a professional guide on the bus” I will say a few words about the article. Accordingly, tourists (local or foreign) will not receive any guidance service on the bus during their bus travel, and will be able to contact the agency official on the bus when necessary. The tourist will see his guide only at the entrance of the ruins, and the tour guide waiting for the tourists at the door will explain the ruins. While discussing this article, I think they evaluated the guide in a narrow context, only as a person explaining the ruins. And they even agreed that an agency representative on the bus did not even know a foreign language. However, the most important part of tourist guidance is the explanations given on the roads in the tourist’s own language. When the country is big, the routes are long, and the country is full of history, culture and nature, bus travel offers the best opportunity for expressions. The guide tells about Rome and Byzantium in Ephesus, Perge and Pergamon, and about Turkey from beginning to end on the bus. An average cultural tour is 1500 kilometers. Along the way, the guide explains in detail almost every subject from the country’s history, traditions, agriculture and economy to his guests. It answers questions about these issues and creates an objective and healthy picture of Turkey in the eyes of its guests. In addition, he tells about the colorful nature scenes, mountains, forests, nomads, sheep and goat herds, cultivated lands, small village settlements, rivers, lakes, cities, bridges, mosques, schools and many other subjects that he saw during the trip, by showing them from the bus. Just explaining cotton, hazelnuts, tea or olives can take hours. Our country’s education system, young population, business life, military system, family life, history, economy, language and cuisine are the topics that tourists are most curious about. There is no chance to explain these things while touring Hagia Sophia, Perge or Bergama. Bus is actually a special and valuable teaching institution where Türkiye is fully promoted.The guidance counselor is the tourist student. Thanks to these explanations of the tourist guides, a tourist who completes his tour returns to his country as a true Turkey lover and expert and tells what he has heard and learned to his friends and neighbors as if he was showing off in his country. The lessons on the bus almost turn into a promotional chain.

Professional Guidance and Türkiye Promotion

In addition to all this, the “guide” also tells you with great pride about the places that are not on the route but must be seen. He describes the east in the western tour, the west in the eastern tour, the Black Sea in the Cappadocia tour, Ağrı and İshak Pasha in the southeastern tour. He gets reward for his efforts from the tourists who thank him many times and leave. That’s why the two highest scores in companies’ tourism surveys have not changed for years: 1. Guide 2. Driver We have been conducting one-on-one surveys with tourists for years… We have hundreds of thousands of surveys in our systems. In a dead-end cultural tour that claims otherwise, what tourists find best without exception is always “Guide” and “Captain”. Ephesus, Pamukkale and Cappadocia come later. This is actually a fine embroidery woven on the roads for kilometers. A tourist who comes with prejudices returns to his country a week later as a lover of Türkiye. You wouldn’t believe it if I wrote about the experiences of the guides and the questions they faced.It often takes 1500 km to repair, convince and win them. An audio device can explain Ephesus in 15 languages, but in Turkey you cannot explain marriage, grandfather and grandmother, the importance of funeral prayers, neighborly relations, or tea conversations. We have approximately 10 thousand professional guides whom we have trained with great difficulty. First they passed a difficult exam, then they received months of training, then they took both the culture and foreign language exam again, and after completing this, they went on a month-long “Grand Tour of Turkey”. This is how he grew up as a professional tour guide. There is a lot of hard work involved. As valuable and influential individuals of Turkish tourism, they have successfully implemented an important responsibility by promoting the country to tourists in the language of tourists. Let’s not ignore the importance of bus travel accompanied by a professional tour guide in cultural tours… The Obligation to Have a Guide on the Bus We do not make transfers, we travel, we take tourists around. If we remove the guide, our beautiful cultural tours will turn into “plum branch” tourism. My suggestion to those who say “There is no need for a guide on the bus” is to travel like a tourist on a tourist bus for a week. They will see firsthand how important what is experienced, what is told, what is asked and answered on the road is. Although those involved are already aware of this. I hope that this unnecessary decision, which does not contribute to the country’s tourism, will be reconsidered, this mistake will be corrected as soon as possible, and the volunteer ambassadors of cultural tourism will not be offended further.

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