Page 6 - Microsoft Word - Guiding light final version 1812 1206.doc

Many Blue and Green badge guides also speak a variety of foreign languages. And unlike other tourist guides - there is no restriction on the profession in the UK - they are properly qualified to look after their guests having undertaken a rigorous 18 month-long course where they study subjects ranging from archaeology to art and from geology to genealogy as well as learning how to do walking tours safely. They also keep their passengers entertained and informed on coach and car excursions around Scotland.
The origins of Scottish Blue Badge guides go back to 1959 when the Scottish Tourist Guides Association was formed in Edinburgh by Bill Nicholson, secretary and manager of the Scottish Tourist Board. Nicholson was arguably ‘Mr Tourism’ in Scotland having headed the STB’s predecessor the Scottish Travel Association since its formation in 1930.
Michael Glen who was appointed Information Manager by Bill Nicholson in the late 1960s said he was ‘Mr Scotland’.
‘I remember saying to Bill (I called him Mr Nicholson of course) “Why is everyone everywhere you go dressed in tartan? Why can’t we get away from it?”
‘He said, “ Michael, because naebady else has it!” And I have never forgotten that. “If you have a winner stick to it.’”
‘Bill was plucked from journalism to head Scotland’s tourism promotion. He was hail fellow well met and was one of the lads in a nice way.’
The origins of Blue Badge Tourist Guides in the UK goes back to 1949 when the London based Travel Association of Great Britain (TAGB) announced it was compiling a central register which would give the names and qualifications of official guides.
In an article in the Scotsman in June 1949, the TAGB was reported as saying it wished to ensure that overseas visitors ‘were not made the dupes of imposters’ and would have an assurance that the person who offers to act as their ‘guide, philosopher and friend’ was fully qualified.
It said that travel agencies and some local authorities had been prominent in training and testing guides, but ‘there was always the difficult of combating the activities of ill-informed touts.’
All guides registered with the Association would be issued with a lapel badge numbered on the inside, on loan to the holder for one year and renewable at the Association’s discretion. At a later stage the Travel Association, in co-operation with other interested bodies, proposed to draw up a guides’ code of conduct on similar lines to that for motorists.
The first objective was the registration of guides for London and surrounding districts covered by popular excursions, but it was hoped that the scheme would extend to the whole of England.
It was also hoped that the Scottish Tourist Board, the Welsh Tourist and Holidays Board and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board would follow the Association’s lead in their own areas so that eventually there would be a national register.
If the scheme proved successful travel agents and other employers of guides would be asked to consider making the employment of new entrants conditional upon having first obtained the certificate of registration.
Approval of a system of training and registering guides had been expressed by the Home Office.
The following year, in London, seven guides who were the first to qualify, met at the historic George Inn in Southwark and founded the Guild of Guide Lecturers (GGI). They were known as ‘The Magnificent Seven’ and guided in hats and gloves.
Their emblem depicted London Pride, the small plant that flourished on bomb sites.
These guides were trained by the British Travel and Holidays Association to interpret to visitors a capital recovering from the ravages of war. Many tourists came to London in 1951 to visit The Festival of Britain.
In 1949 Bill Nicholson said he would like to see a development of the scheme in Scotland with Edinburgh being one of the most visited cities in Europe and enjoying increasing visitor numbers.
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