Importance of Being Able To Speak Various Language

Since the month of May,2009, it has been very very low season for most China market tour guides. Previously, on average there will be about 30 groups coming into Malaysia via Singapore. But these days there are only about 5 China groups per day.

I was told that the China government started to impose strict regulations to all the travel agents in China. If there is any complaint from the chinese tourists, then the China travel agent will be black listed.

As for the China tour leaders, they are also strictly controlled as well. They have to deposit RMB40,000 and to ensure that there will be no complaints towards them. Or else their deposit will be forfeited.

Due to this reason, the China travel agents are very reluctant to market their tours to South East Asia.

Of course there are other reasons like the recession and also the H1N1 that made the China tourists reluctant to travel overseas as well.

I am one of the lucky tour guides for I am able to speak fluent English and Malay. As such, I am able to take the Indian and also the Indonesia tourists. I was told some of the China market tour guides can only lead a group a month.

As for last month, I lead a China group, an Indian group and also two Indonesia groups.

So, it is very important that as a tour guide, we must be able to speak various languages in order to survive.

Being able to lead various countries tourists is also an added advantage because I am able to know the habits, culture, likes and dislikes of the tourists.

Tour Guide Extraordinaire

Meet Alan Danker, touted as one of the best tourist guides Malaysia has had.

He is credited with raising the standard of the guiding profession in the country — for which he has been recognised, nationally and internationally.

Because of his experience and knowledge as a tourist guide, he was approached by Tourism Development Corporation Malaysia and Mara to conduct tour-guiding classes for students enrolled in tourism courses.
Danker, who undertook a variety of guiding roles, including sightseeing coach tours, walk-abouts in towns and cities as well as visits to mosques, cathedrals, stately homes and museums, passed away quite suddenly, on Aug 30, shortly after his 51st birthday.

He is recognised as a guide who gave tourists an impressive image of Malaysia, being proficient in subjects like Malaysian history, geology and the monarchy — and even the gestation period of the orang utan.

He earned the "Best Tourist Guide" award from TDC Malaysia in 1993.

Born Alan Gerard Danker in Alor Star on Aug 27, 1957, his father Benedict was of Eurasian-Dutch descent who was an air traffic officer at the Alor Star airport and his mother a teacher at the local convent school. The family lived their early years in Kedah, before moving to Petaling Jaya.

A fragile baby at birth, Danker had a bone deformity in his sternum. It would have been fatal if he took a hard blow or knock around his rib cage. Corrective surgery was done, at the Assunta Hospital in PJ, when he turned five.

He schooled at the La Salle Christian Brothers school in PJ, from primary until Form Five, and was an outstanding student, a class monitor during his junior years and a prefect in his senior years. His was also a commanding voice in the school's Literary and Debating Society.

Outside school, he was involved in church activities, serving as an altar boy during his teens, a youth choir master and a member of the Assumption Parish Youth Club. He was a church warden in his later years.

On completing his education, Danker joined the Kuala Lumpur Equatorial Hotel for a few years before becoming leader of a three-piece Country and Western band called The Moonshiners.
They performed at various hotels and resorts around Malaysia in the Eighties. The exposure gained from going places and meeting foreign tourists gave him the confidence to become a tour guide, a job he felt he was cut out for.

It was during his rounds as a musician that he met Cindy Cecelia Lai, whom he married on Jan 6, 1990. They have two girls, Bianca Rowena and Helena Geraldine — the second named after his schoolteacher mother Helen Ivy Hayden, who died on July 7 (see A Life Remembered, Aug 5).
Though being a tourist guide kept him away from home for long periods, Danker never failed to spend time with his family on his days off.

Birthdays of family members and Christmas were occasions for celebration, besides Chinese New Year, at his Balakong home.

Danker spent his 51st birthday with his family in Malacca. Two days later, at home during lunch on Aug 29, he suffered hemorrhaging of the brain. He slipped into a coma from which he never gained consciousness, and passed away the next day.

Danker was one of nature's gentlemen, emanating kindness, courtesy and humour. Above all. he was a family man who had many friends, local, national and worldwide.

Sources : The Malay Mail 11th Sept 2008

P/S : Mr. Alan Danker was my model tour guide for the Kuala Lumpur city tour when I took my tour guide course in the year 1993. This is a special dedication for someone and tour guide super super extraordinaire. A real pity that Malaysia lost one of its talents...

WE DESERVED THE TOUR GUIDE FEE

Today, I have recieved a few sms saying that the Yang Guang tour guides are cooperating to fight and maintain the tour guide fees. It is really a very good news and I am very happy about it. I also pray and hope that every tour guides won't undercut the guide fee in the future...

Please remember, when we have our own tour guide fees, we portray our professionalisms in our work. We are so lucky that we are not the Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand and Singapore tour guides (for China market) because right up till today, they still do not have any tour guide fees at all.

Since we are the last country that these China visitors visiting us, their spending power is getting so much weaker. Part of our income comes from the commission that we earned from the shopping. So, please think, how long and how much can we rely on these shopping commissions if we do not have any tour guide fees at all.

Please think of the sacrifices that we forego when we were guiding....

On the first day of the China group, we have to wake up at 5am. We have to be at Mandarin Court hotel by 6am to catch the bus to the Second Link. We have to pay RM10 on our own, which we cant claim from the travel agent, as a transportation fee to the driver to support him for the petrol money.

Then we have to wait for hours under hot sun for the groups to arrive from Singapore. Do you realise, there is no fan and no air condition room for us while waiting for the tourists? Isnt it a real suffer waiting in the humid sun like that?

Upon recieving the tourists, our work begun. We have to talk and talk to the tourists and to serve them at any time. God knows what happen if there is any bad incidence or accidents happen to our tourists. We, tour guides again are responsible.

On average, for the China tour guides, we easily work for at least 12 hours per day. Its basically almost non stop of commentarty for a few hours each day.

The third day, again we have to bump our ass on the seat from Genting to Johor Bahru.

And on the final day, we have to wake up from 3 - 4 am to send off the group. Some travel agents even warned tour guides if we do not follow them to Singapore, and if the group did not get to fly off, we tour guides have to be responsible and bear for all the costs. Worst still, if we have to back another group again on the same day. How much of sleep do we have?

And if we dont have groups, after sending off the group, again we have to fork out our own money to buy the express bus ticket to Kuala Lumpur. Now that the petrol price increased, I wonder how much we have to pay for the ticket.

When we finished off our assignments, again we have to pay the file fees of RM20 - RM30 to the travel agents. Please go and ask other markets tour guides what is file fee... They will laugh you off. I am lucky that the travel agents that I work with do not require me to pay the file fee.

Do you realise how much of cost incurred while you are doing the tours? Have you ever calculated all the costing (food, drinks, tipping for driver, spending driver, etc) during the tours?

If I wanted to list down all the sacrifices, money and energy, that we gave in during the tours, the list actually can go on and on...

So, all my fellow tour guides, can you imagine how much of energy, time and effort that we sacrifice for the job? When we are with our groups, we reach home so much later than any other people. (Usually, when I got home, my whole family members are all asleep). Then again, we wake up so much earlier than any other people. (They were still sleeping when I took off for work). Dont you miss your family members when you are at work? This is one of the biggest sacrifice for the tour guides.

Worst of all, within these few years, I am sure you could have heard of some tour guides even have to bear the costs of the flight tickets, pay compensation for lost of luggages, pay compensation for whatever complaints by the China tourists, etc.

So, my dear fellow tour guides, please wake up. Please realise the responsibilities that we have to bear and the sacrifices that we made just for the job of a tour guide. We DESERVED to be paid for our tour guide fee.

It is really in the bottom of my heart that all tour guides are cooperating and standing united to fight for what we deserved to have. So, please... make sure that we have our tour guide fees and nothing lesser than the RM150.00 per day of guiding fee.

China Tour Guides Attention Please...

On the 19th June 2008, I as a representative for the Taksina Travels and the Megah Dorongan Travels had a meeting with other tour guides representatives of each travel agents at Pearl International. With us is also the chairman of KLTGA Mr. Kenny Khan.

At that meeting, we were having solutions that even on the petroluem crisis, we, the China market tour guides are willing to be cooperative with the travel agents not to hike up the tour guide fees.

What made us really feel sad is that there is no representative from the Yang Guang travels. Its a really disappointing not to have any representative from the travel agent. As such, this made us so much more suspicious that the Yang Guang Travels tour guides are under cutting the tour guide fees.

So, in the meeting, we hope to past words to the Yang Guang Travels tour guides not to undercut the tour guide fees. It was believed that some of the Yang Guang Travels tour guides were only taking RM300 guide fees for the 4 days work for China group.

In such a bad situation with the world petroleum crisis, I on behalf of all the tour guides really hope that everyone will be cooperative not to undercut the tour guide fees. The price of every product is going to increase... so please, don't undercut the tour guide fees.

As for the travel agents, they are actually making excuse that because we tour guides are demanding for increase of tour guide fees and that is the reason why there are very few China groups coming into Malaysia. Please dont believe them because the actual reason is that the China government is barring all the government employees from going overseas due to earthquake which happened in Sze Chuan.

After all, the final word is that it is hope that we tour guides will past the words around to all tour guides that we should not let the travel agents to manipulate the tour guide fees anymore and also to tell the Yang Guang Travels tour guides not to undercut the tour guide fees.

We also concluded that as of 5th July 2008, we will go against and take actions of banning the tour guides license should they were caught undercutting the tour guide fees. We will be cooperating with the Malaysia Inbound Travels Association (MITA) to ban those travel agents who undercut the tour fare at all.

Please I really hope all tour guides are cooperative... Once we stand united, we will be strong forever... Please remember what tour guide fee that we fight for is for the benefits of all and its for the long term. When we have our tour guide fees, we show our profesionalisms.

Chinese Speaking Tour Guides Attention Please!!!

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I came across those of you who are Chinese educated told me that why I don't write in Chinese...

For your information I am so sorry that I am English and Malay educated. So I cant read or write Chinese.

I really hope any one of you still can contribute to this webpage and let this blog start to roll. I really need everyone's cooperation and contribution so that this webpage is useful to everyone.

I really don't mind broken English. If you really cant write in English, do so in Chinese. At least there is someone who is willing to contribute something here.

Please remember that this webpage is for everyone...

Thank You...

Tour Guide Dilema

I have taken my off days since 1st June 2008. I am taking these off days for few reasons:

1) Been working basically without any rest for about two months during the month of April and May. My body been asking me to have a good rest and to recharge.

2) Its the school holiday again. So its family time again. As usual, taken my son to the City of Entertainment and also Zoo Negara (been decades never been to this place... and I believe same goes to most of the tour guides).

3) Its a very low season for the China tourists. There have been rumours that it will be a very low season for the China market for 3 months (June, July and August). This low season is due to the China government did not allow any of its government workers to go overseas to enjoy because of the earthquake in Sichuan. Another reason is the Olympic game. It falls on the 8th August 2008 and its organised for a month in China.

Due to this very low season, of course, the main dilema of a tour guide is how do I get my income to pay for the house and the car installment. I have been very lucky because I am able to speak various languages. So, lucky me that I have diversified to as many markets as possible since 3 years ago.

Today, I have just called Lynn Tan (Siakson Travels). She immediately arranged 3 groups for me this one whole month. At least, I have Indian groups to substitute the China market. What about those China market tour guides? I think if they can get 3 to 5 groups for these 3 months they are considered very lucky.

Another dilema of the China speaking tour guides is that Kuala Lumpur Tour Guides' Association (KLTGA) is demanding a hike of tour guide fees of RM180.00 per day from the travel agents. The China market tour guides are not so much affected as they are already enjoying RM150.00 per day guide fee.

The worst affected ones are the Hong Kong and the Taiwan tour guides. They are actually having zero tour guide fees due to the zero tour fare by the travel agents. So... they are going on strike demanding for guiding fees from the travel agents. Hei... fellow brothers and sisters... its time we are united for our own good.

The news of fuel price increase has also badly affected the tour guides. The following day after the announcement of the fuel price increase, the China market bus drivers demanded the tour guides to pay him RM25.00 per person for the transportation fee to fetch us from KL to 2nd LINK. Its lucky that the tour guides once again stand united go against the demand of the the bus driver. I really wonder why do these bus drivers don't demand increament from the travel agents but from tour guides.

Kudos to those tour guides who stand united on that day and also to those who have sent sms around to ask tour guides to stand united to go against the increament of the transportation fee.

With the fuel price increase, I guess this will definitely affect the life expenses of tour guides very badly as well. Our tour guide fees have never been increased easily for more than 10 years. More misery and more dilemas are coming... fellow tour guides... so... its time for us to change our living lifestyle...

I wonder when will the dilema of tour guides will ever end...