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‘Scotland’s attractions have been widely publicised through popular films and TV programmes,’ he said.
‘Witness for instance the Outlander phenomenon. The continuing rapid growth of the cruise sector has increased the demand for guiding services. The year 2017 saw some additional 80,000 additional cruise ship visitors to Scotland compared to 2016.
‘Given that an average shore excursion has around 40 guests, this equates to about 2000 additional guiding jobs.’
As the STGA approached its 60th anniversary it was clear that the tourist industry in Scotland had grown exponentially since the first meeting of guides in 1959 to form the association. Business was booming and application numbers for Blue Badge Guide courses were extremely healthy.
At the STGA’s AGM in 2019 seven guides who played major roles in the development of the association were recognised by being put on a new Roll of Honour.
They were Ros Newlands, OBE, who was a past STGA Blue Badge course director and president of the World Federation of Tourist Guides Association between 2007 and 2013; Forbes McNaughton who was the first chairman of the STGA when it became a limited company in 1996; Sally Spaven who was a former chair of the STGA when it hosted the WFTGA Convention in 2003; Tom Caskie who as a prominent board member played a key role in the STGA winning a contract to guide visitors around the Scottish Parliament when it first opened; Doreen Boyle who managed the day-to-day running of the STGA when it opened its first office in 1998; Norma Clarkson who introduced the STGA’s Continuous Professional Development scheme when she was chair and served between 2015 and 2019 as an Executive Officer of the European Federation of Tourist Guides Association; and Mary Kemp-Clarke who was a past STGA Blue Badge course director and, until recently, Vice President of the WFTGA.
Chair Linda Arthur said the STGA had firmly established itself as the premier national organisation for tourist guides in Scotland and paid tribute to the seven members who had done so much to put it on a firm footing.
Linda also announced plans for the Blue Badge course to be run in collaboration with City of Glasgow College. Students would be able to watch lectures online which would mean less travelling and reduce their costs. The course would have 36 students on course and would run for 18 months.
David Tucker on how the STGA moved into modern times
When I started training in 2008, I found an immediate comfort in the fact that my ‘cohort’ of students were of a similar age range to me - ahem! - which meant frequent comments about the lack of spring chickens, going around the block a few times etc.
The problem for many of us was that technology was moving too fast, but we needed to get up-to-date simply to complete the course - using the Internet for research, submitting our work electronically etc - let alone to start out on what was, for most of us, a completely new profession.
After qualifying, I opted to take a turn as a Director on the STGA Board, with a remit for marketing - that had been my primordial career - and it soon became apparent that the ’technology gap’ was, understandably, an even greater problem for many of the existing guides who had been in the business for many years, if not decades.
Even by 2010, it was quite jaw-dropping - seen with some hindsight - that such a high proportion of STGA members did not possess mobile phones or email addresses. In future, this would make guiding ‘on the road’ almost impossible for these guides, but the urgent issue, as I found out from office and committee staff, was not being able to communicate with ’pre-electronic’ members. For one thing, postage costs had rocketed upwards (in tandem with email and messaging being ‘free’) as had the costs, and inconvenience, of land- line telephony.
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