Royal Mountain Travel Magazine Royal Mountain Travel Magazine Issue 1 | Page 41

What do you have to do to become a guide?
To be a city guide, one has to undergo a 90-day course from
NATHAM (Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management)
which is located at Ravi Bhawan in Kathmandu. To get admitted
onto the course, one has to be a graduate (in any discipline) and
pass an admission test. As for being a trekking guide, it is a 45-day
course.Workexperience,ratherthaneducationalqualifications,are
not needed for this course.

How difficult is it to get admission?
Both the courses are very popular. There are three times more
applications than available seats.

How many licensed guides are there in Nepal?
It could be about 3000 although only 500 or so are usually active.
Manymighthaveemigrated.Someareguidesonapart-timebasis.
We have been working as guides for the last 10 years.

when we take them out of the city. This, in turn, makes us happy and
motivated. When take groups to Tibet, in that case we are known as
tourongroupleaders,sincetheChineseauthoritiesprovidetheirown
guide there.

What do you think is the ideal number of
people you would prefer in a group you are
guiding?
Twelve to fifteen is a good number to have. Actually, most of our
groups have this number.

How long are city tours and trekking tours?
We usually conduct 10-day tours of which about three days are in
KathmanduandtherestoutsideinplaceslikeDhulikhel,Nagarkot,
Pokhara, and so on. We have seen that most tourist just fall in love
with Pokhara.We believe that it has a really bright future.Treks can
be for Longer, depending where we go

What do you think are the attributes of a good What are the trends you notice in Nepal’s
tourism nowadays?
guide?
One has to be, first of all, interested in the profession. And, one
hastobeverywell organized. Discipline is therefore important asis
honesty.Aguide’sworkcarriesbigresponsibilitiesandso,youhave
to do your homework well.

What occupies you more, being city guides or
trekking guides? And, which is more enjoyable?
We think we do both equally. We find guiding trekking groups to be
more fun, not that we don’t enjoy being city guides as well. While
trekking,wegetclosertothepeopleweareguidingandgettosharea
lotofdifferentexperiences.Wemustalsosaythatoneofthepleasures
of our work is that we usually have a mix of different nationalities and
cultures in our groups and that makes it all the more interesting. One
of the great advantages of going trekking is that you get out of the
city and get to experience the fresh air and natural surroundings of
theoutdoors.Wehaveseenthattouristsalsobecomevisiblyhappier

Well, we saw a big increase in number of Indian and Chinese trekkers
this year.We have noticed that most mountain flights are nowadays
half-packed with Indian tourists while there is a growth of 40% in
the number of Chinese visitors to the country. As to the quality of
tourists coming here, Nepal always has been a favoured destination
for backpackers and it is true that we get less up-market visitors. In a
way, this is to be expected because there is not much we can offer to
such visitors. As it is, conducting a three-day city tour in Kathmandu
is not that easy because what we have does not take much time to
see.Sometimes,touristsaredisillusionedtoseetherealityascompared
to the pictures they see on brochures. Our tourist sites are not well
maintained. While on this subject, we must say that Bhaktapur is
doingagoodjobofusingthemoneyearnedfromvisitorstokeepthe
city clean and welcoming.

www.royalmt.com.np

41