Lawmaker-cum-restaurateur Andrew Chan Chak Mo, who chairs the Legislative Assembly’s 2nd Standing Committee, said yesterday that the government-initiated tour guides bill proposes that tour guides must always wear their tourist guide ID badges while at work, otherwise they would face a fine of 10,000 to 20,000 patacas.
Addressing a press briefing after yesterday’s closed-door meeting reviewing the government’s bill regulating the licensing and operations of the city’s travel agencies and tour guides, Chan said that the tour guides’ official badges should be worn where they can be easily seen.
The bill proposes to update official regulations on the city’s travel agencies and tour guides to replace a decree law enacted back in 1998 when Macau was still under temporary Portuguese administration. The decree law was last amended in 2004.
The bill proposes to bar receiving agencies from serving tour groups visiting Macau at a rate that generates a revenue lower than the cost required to organise the respective group’s tour here, with the aim of making it more effective for the government to combat the organisation of the notorious “zero-fare” group tours.
Chan quoted fellow committee members as saying that the proposed increase in the fine was too high when compared to the existing fine of just 1,000 to 5,000 patacas. Chan explained that as tour guides were frontline workers, poor service would have a great impact on the image of Macau as a tourist destination.
Chan also quoted other committee members as suggesting using electronic badges to replace physical tour guide ID badges and expressed concern about the time it would take for the replacement of lost badges, so as to avoid affecting the work of tour guides.
The bill proposes to abolish the badge for transfer co-ordinators (known in Portuguese as “transferistas”), i.e., those hired by an travel agency to welcomes and escort tourists between border checkpoints and hotels.
Chan pointed out that tourist transfer co-ordinators can enrol in a programme of the Macao University of Tourism (UTM) within one year to become a tour guide, and they will be issued with a tour guide ID badge upon graduation.
Some committee members believe, according to Chan, that the articles of the bill were not clear enough, adding that government officials will attend the next meeting to answer the committee members follow-up questions.
Lawmaker-cum-restaurateur Andrew Chan Chak Mo (right), who chairs the legislature’s 2nd Standing Committee, talks to reporters after the committee’s closed-door meeting reviewing the government’s tour guide bill yesterday, while the committee’s secretary, Lam Lon Wai, looks on. – Photo courtesy of TDM
