27 September 2010, 18:10
Today, a working session on the excursion activity in Ukraine was held in the Parliament on occasion of the International Tourism Day. Mykola Tomenko, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, emphasised that the tourism activity was a rather complicated and problematic sphere of modern tourism sector in Ukraine. Thus, in the course of the session, the representatives of the central and local executive power bodies and leaders of tourism enterprises discussed the issues concerning professional trainings of guides and normative-legal support of this activity.
Opening the meeting, the Deputy Chairman singled out the problems regarding competence of the specialists in this field and the excursions content. Furthermore, M. Tomenko stated that, unfortunately, clause 37 of the Law of Ukraine "On Tourism" was not observed in different regions of Ukraine: "We have lost the control over the activity of semi-legal tourist companies, so the history of Ukraine is retold by the foreign guides." "We should demand that the heads of the local authorities subdivisions in charge of tourism supervise realization of the law as to the ban on conduction of tourism business in Ukraine by the non-certified foreign establishments," he emphasised.
M. Tomenko called for enhancing the work of accreditation commissions and setting up the methodological councils in the subdivisions on tourism in regional councils. "Furthermore, the training of such specialists should be provided", the Deputy Chairman stated. M. Tomenko deems necessary to upgrade the technical equipment for interpreting and translation.
Speaking about the prestige of the occupation of a guide, M. Tomenko declared: "If Ukraine is considered as a tourist state, then the profession of a guide should become popular and in-demand."