The effectiveness of continuing tourism related education (CTRE) for tourist guides in Malaysia

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Continuing Tourism Related Education (CTRE) in career as tourist guides in Malaysia. CTRE training is given to tourist guides as a compulsory requirement to renew the guiding license and as part of their professional developments. Most of the previous research emphasised on the training for tourist guides, however this research focuses on the effectiveness of CTRE itself on tourist guides. In order to discover the effectiveness of this enhancement course, this research is done by applying a quantitative research. This study has outlined three important research questions. Firstly, do a tourist guides understand the knowledge obtained from CTRE course and secondly, do the tourist guides practice the knowledge and experience from CTRE course when performing their duties. Lastly, the research question deals on how CTRE course could be effective to tourist guides. The results of this study illustrate the effectiveness of this course to tourist guides based on their experience attending the CTRE throughout their period of service as licensed tourist guides. The findings indicate that tourist guides have understood the knowledge gained from CTRE in terms of product/tourist attraction/destination history and the concept and challenges in tour guiding. Furthermore, tourist guides also practice the knowledge and experience gained from CTRE into their everyday guiding tasks with fresh knowledge, good communication skills, self-confidence and others. Meanwhile, majority of the tourist guides agree that CTRE is very effective for their careers and this course should be continued with some improvement in the learning activities and good guideline to the organiser should be implemented.