The Taiwan Tourism Bureau wants to train NZ and Australian young people to train to become tour guides for Western tourists in Taiwan, with salaries of NT$25,000 per month after a 3 month training program in their own countries. Good idea?
Another option being developed by the Tourism Bureau is using young Australians and New Zealanders as part-time guides. Would-be guides would have to complete a course of study in their home countries and then receive three months of training after their arrival in this country. They would be paid NT$25,000 a month.
Tourism Bureau Deputy Director General Kuo Su Tsan-yang () said the young Australians and New Zealanders will have a good knowledge of Taiwan because most will have completed a course of 16 hours of classroom work and 400 hours of field work before arriving.
The government has signed Working Holiday Agreements with Australia and New Zealand to issue working holiday visas to one another’s citizens aged between 18 and 30 to allow them to work for up to 12 months.
Kuo Su said that to be eligible for a working holiday visa, applicants must be a passport holder of one of the countries and be able to show that they have access to at least US$4,000 in bank savings.
However, the government is considering reducing the bank funds requirement in order to attract more Australians and New Zealanders to come to Taiwan and introduce Taiwan to other English-speakers.
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Salaries for tour guides are very odd here. I believe that most (Taiwanese) tour guides actually have to pay for the priviledge of taking tour groups - they make their money solely from tips etc. during the tour.
Salaries for tour guides are very odd here. I believe that most (Taiwanese) tour guides actually have to pay for the priviledge of taking tour groups - they make their money solely from tips etc. during the tour.[/quote]
Interesting. I don’t think they’re going to find many Kiwis or Ozzys who would accept that.
But I wonder if Westerners visiting Taiwan are going to want to be led on tours by other Westerners who don’t even know the country very well. Three months “training” is hardly enough. Isn’t the charm of having local tour guides, anywhere, in Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, the fact that they can’t bloody well speak English very well and the cross-cultural body language is all screwy, but hey, it’s fun and that’s what visiting a foreign country is all about?
I mean, why would a New York couple or a London couple want to be led around Taiwan by a newbie foreigner who hardly knows the country? This seems like a very BAD idea, but par for the course for the ROC Tourism Bureau.
Salaries for tour guides are very odd here. I believe that most (Taiwanese) tour guides actually have to pay for the priviledge of taking tour groups - they make their money solely from tips etc. during the tour.[/quote]
not tips…backhanders from the shops the buses stop at…thats why you’ll always be pressganged into visiting endless number of shops selling shitty “local merchandise” you can probably buy for less in taipei…
Perhaps that’s why they’re trying to sucker some foreigners into being tour guides - none of the locals want to take Westerners around because a) they don’t tip and b) they’re not interested in shopping in the stores where the tour guide might get a commission
I do agree with Cola though - seems a pretty daft idea. Why anyone would want a tour guide who (presumably) doesn’t speak Mandarin and probably has less knowledge than is available in the Lonely Planet guide is beyond me.
Also, how does the tour guide do ‘400 hours of field work’ before arriving in Taiwan? A TT typo?
Uh Oh…B1, Wax, TU (all ya can drink) places beware! I suggest the locals hide their daughters as well. With one mighty “G’day” and the panties disapear.
Why pay for an Aussie or Kiwi when you can find lovely local “tour guides” all over southeast Asia for a modest fine to the bar. I bet those Antipodeans don’t even give good BJ, and besides, who knows what filthy disease they get from sheep. Stick with the long raven-haired tour guides, very easy to find in Taiwan, not as cheap as Cambodia but show you good time tour city nightlife.
Amazing how “wise” Forumosans always appear to be (on any given topic)!
I’m sure in Kiwi and Aussie-lands there are are loads of folks who’ve been screwed out of their land, livelyhood and who-knows-what-else who would give their who-knows-what for a chance to earn AUS1000 dollars. Not that they’d be allowed in this here SK2-Land that we call home…
(And dreaming on, while they’re here, who know, they may get yet another opportunity to earn a fraction of what foreign “teachers” earn.)
