Today tourism has become an important sector that has an impact on development of our country’s economy. Alongside with agriculture, energy, nonferrous-metals industry and mineral ores tourism is considered one of the future economic sectors of our country. The main benefits of tourism are income creation and generation of jobs. The ability of the national economy to benefit from tourism depends on the availability of investment to develop the necessary infrastructure and on its ability to supply the needs of tourists.
While Tajikistan has a wealth of natural resources which make us an ideal destination for travelers, an underdeveloped infrastructure and poor service have always inhibited our tourism industry. Lack of qualified tour guides is one of the most urgent challenges we have. As the customer expectations increase, guides need professional trainings which incorporate additional tools and approaches to enable the guides meet the industry’s growing needs.
The current government of the Republic of Tajikistan also recognizes the relevance of supporting the travel industry and declared 2019-2021 as “The Years of Development of Villages, Tourism and Folk Crafts”. The number of tourist agencies in Tajikistan today has reached to, almost, 200. With the support of the Tourism Committee under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan they are, also, putting forth their joint efforts to develop the travel industry in the country.
Paramount Journey, one the tour companies of Sughd Region of Tajikistan recently brought together a group of passionate volunteers who are interested in contributing to the development of tourism in Tajikistan by educating and training young travel enthusiasts to become guides and tourism experts. And, the group is called Tajikistan Guides.
In the frame of the Module I, a 12 days course excluding course opening and closing, tea breaks or any other unscheduled activities in class was planned. The program was designed for a maximum of 20 trainees, 15 of whom had a chance for scholarships. Target audiences were new entrants, existing local tour guides in Sughd Region and local guides in other tourism destinations in Tajikistan.
After advertising training activities and outcomes through social media and our website, the candidates were given a month before the deadline which was 2020.01.31. By the deadline, the number of applicants exceeded 90 and the selection process was not an easy one. In the end, 20 successful applicants were invited to attend the seminar-training within the frame of the Module I.
The first day of the training started at 1 pm, in a specious conference hall of Sughdiyon Hotel, Khujand. The participants showed up on time. The interesting fact is that the participants were from different districts and towns of Tajikistan (Kanibadam, B.Gafurov, Khujand, Istaravshan, Devashtich, Panjakent and even the representatives of GBAO).
The topic was Understanding Tour Guiding Job (general overview). Course opening was delivered by Alovaddin Kalonow, the CEO of the LLC Paramount Journey. He introduced the trainees with the Course Description and the goals of the training, and explained the perspectives of guiding job and employment opportunities after the accomplishment of the training. A short but interesting opening speech was followed by an introductory speech of the trainer, Farhod Fayzullaev. As soon as the teambuilding activities had been performed and the group members had a short interaction with each other, the content of the first day topic was delivered. It should be noted, that training carried an interactive character and the teaching approaches and tools met international standards of education.
Trainees had a chance to improve their self-education and peer-education skills, which is considered one of the most important components of the training. The seminars were full of educational activities and provided the participants with useful and necessary links to relevant information sources. Another important core component of the training course was that it was dedicated to furnish the trainees with knowledge and skills in terms of communication and presentation, as well as with the techniques of content delivery. Either the teambuilding activities of the first day or the teaching skills of the trainer for three days started giving its fruits as the participants began to take a very active part in the training. Not only did they participate actively but also wanted to contribute to the training the following days. One of the youngest participants Sanjar Yorov suggested an initiative to prepare a presentation on the topic of Non-verbal Communication.
The fifth session was about Safety and health hazard. The trainees were informed about the main health hazards in Tajikistan and how to react in case of emergency situations.
Activity of the participants witnessed how much they were absorbed by the content of the training!
Long expected fieldwork took place at the Historical Museum of Sughd Region. The trainees were given an exclusive opportunity, opportunity of being guided by one of the experienced guides of the museum, Husienjon Ismatulloev! Husienjon’s every single motion, storytelling skills, body language skills, presentation, content delivery capacity were followed by the enthusiastic eyes of our trainees.
Apart from the museum, seven of our trainees were given small home-tasks. If a tour-presentation made by Muhammadkarim was the highlight of the day. His task was to guide the group of trainees in the House Museum of Kamoli Khujandi. The very moment he started his introduction to the topic he was able to engage everybody’s attention. His speech was easy to follow with a neat organization. He was easy to give comments on some points where the group seemed to be a bit puzzled and the extra information he delivered gave the audiences a nice understanding of traditional Tajik family house and its specific unwritten rules. In general, one should be happy to be guided by him in the future.
Back in the training room we had a chance to critically analyze the trainees’ performance and give some comments. Feedback session was highly appreciated by both, trainees and the staff of Paramount Journey.
During the session, Leading Cultural and Historical Tours, the trainees learned the essential components of the job. During one of the educational activities of the day, in small groups, they designed a virtual itinerary and every small group made an excellent presentation. At the end of the day eight more trainees were entrusted with the task of leading a portion of tour at cultural-historical sites on the ninth day.
The second field work was an unforgettable experience for our trainees! A very qualified local guide Shahboz Akramzadeh gave general information about the complex of Sh.Maslihatdin Mausoleum and Mosque, our trainees took their turns to demonstrate their skills learnt on small but interesting highlights of the Bazaar. Bazaar highlights presentations including the importance of bazaar in Khujand, fresh and dry fruit, Tajik bread were performed well. After that we headed to Arbob Cultural-Historical Palace. We had a good chance to observe Shahboz guiding in the bus that was a true practical experience to “taste” bus guiding skills. Comments and feedback took place right in the Palace.
The following day, under the supervision of the trainer, each of the trainees conducted virtual tours of cultural, historical and archeological sites located in Tajikistan. It was a big day full of information and fun. At the end of the day, a hot discussion and feedback turned to be “a tasty dessert”.
The growth of adventure tourism raised the expectations of travelers globally. As the customer expectations increase, adventure guides need professional trainings which incorporate additional tools and approaches to enable the guides meet the industry’s growing needs. The educational activities we planned to deliver aimed at improving the quality of adventure guides’ services in Tajikistan, as well. Today’s session was dedicated to Adventure Travel Guiding Core Competencies. The session helped the trainees/guides learn skills for interacting with target tourists and understanding expectations of adventure travel customers. During the training, the trainees were given general information about International Travel Guide Qualification & Performance Standard that outlines five core competencies — technical, medical, customer service, interpretation, and sustainability. One of the activities of the session was creating a route up on the Fann Mountains and the group was divided into 4 small groups. In 20 minutes 4 small groups presented their itinerary (each group was given different starting point and time of the year) on the mountains taking the competencies mentioned in the standard into account.
The last day of our training. Today both the trainees and the trainer had an excellent opportunity to attend a seminar conducted by Alovaddin Kalonov on Adventure Tourism in Tajikistan. The second part of the seminar grew really interesting as a specialist invited from the Traumatic Surgery Department of the Regional Hospital delivered a master-class on how to render first aid and wilderness medicine which is one of the most crucial part of adventure guides’ job! Everyone enjoyed the seminar.
On the course closing and summary of the Module 1, the final speech was made by Alovaddin Kalonov and then the floor was given to the Head of Tourism Department of Sughd Region, Abdumajid Rahimov who expressed his gratitude to the organizers and the participants of the training. Mr. Rahimov, then, awarded the trainees with certificates of acknowledgment.
There was a survey conducted among all trainees where they were asked for their feedback about the training and how they could have improved their professional competency. Overall, all participants declared that it was beyond their expectations and they had never attended such an effective training even though some of them had participated in the trainings conducted by some international organizations.
At the end of the day, the farewell dinner was hosted by Paramount Journey
