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By this time Pam Wells was involved in training and mentoring students for the STGA. She also was a source of work for many local guides, providing good bookings for conference work. She was also an inspiration and role model for both existing and new local guides. The year 2014 saw the first recruitment to the Branch for a decade with the arrival of Graham Bruce and Linda Mackay. Targeted advertising saw further guides progressing through the Blue Badge course with three new guides arriving in 2016 and another 5 in 2018. However, many new guides quite reasonably turned to extended tours to repay the costs of their courses. In 2016 Elma won the Pride of Aberdeen Tourism and Hospitality Hero Award and in both 2015 and 2018 she qualified for the finals of the Scottish Thistle Awards as the Aberdeen City and Shire ‘Tourism and Hospitality Hero’.
The increasing numbers allowed the Branch to host the successful weekend-long 60th Anniversary AGM in March 2019; a rejuvenated Dundee waterfront providing a fantastic backdrop to the celebrations. The STGA continued to show its commitment to the area with the formation of the North East Scotland Green Badge Training Course in conjunction with Aberdeen University; the first Guide training in the area for over 25 years and required both as a result of Aberdeen’s increasing profile as a tourism destination and also the development of the new South Harbour for the city, which will allow larger cruise ships to call in the north east. The year 2020 should see the Branch continue to grow with the graduation of the first eight Green Badge Guides and another Blue Badge Guide joining its ranks. ‘These new guides are desperately needed and are welcomed by existing local guides, few of whom work exclusively in the local area,’ said Elma.
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