New rules for the tourist guide profession. The changes announced by the Minister of Tourism
The Minister of Economy, Digitalization, Entrepreneurship and Tourism, Irineu Darău, announced that he has made public the new rules for the profession of tourist guide.
“After more than 20 years, we are updating the rules for the tour guide profession. It may seem like a technical topic, but in reality we are talking about the people who represent Romania in front of tourists, day by day. The tour guide is no longer just the person who “leads a group”. He is the man who explains, provides context, creates experiences and contributes directly to the image of Romania that a tourist goes home with,” the minister wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday.
According to him, among the changes are the abandonment of the cardboard ID cards used since 2001 and the introduction of modern cards with QR code – safer, easier to check and adapted to a digital administration. In addition, professional categories are clarified to eliminate confusion: “local guide” becomes “internal guide”, and “national guide” becomes “international guide”, Agerpres cites.
“We are updating the sanctions system”
The changes “also allow citizens from outside the European Union who have the right to work in Romania to legally work as tourist guides. Until now, the law blocked them even after completing the qualification courses. We are updating the system of sanctions, which has remained almost unchanged since 2001, from the time when fines were still expressed in millions of old lei,” the minister wrote.
He showed that Romania currently has almost 9,000 active tourist guides, of which over 400 are certified this year alone. It is a growing field that needs more professionalization, digitization and clarity.
