Viewpoints on Improving the Quality of Tour Guides of Travel Agencies in Hanoi

Members attend short-term training courses on business and technology.

- Promote investment in infrastructure, market research, connection and association with tourism associations and localities to build safe destinations, focus on disease prevention and control, build new tours with good prices, ensure quality from suppliers, transportation, accommodation, and attractions.

4.1.3. Perspectives on improving the quality of tour guides of travel agencies in Hanoi

Tour guides are the vanguard in the tourism industry, ambassadors who play a very important role in building the image of Vietnamese tourism in the eyes of domestic and international friends. Many initiatives to improve the qualifications of tour guides have been put forward by tourism management levels, including providing an online database system with practical and rich content such as cultural information, history, geography, world cultural heritages in Vietnam, national heritages, legal documents related to the tourism sector, especially tour guides, current tours and routes...

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From the results of interviews with managers of enterprises in Hanoi combined with summary reports and business operation directions in the following years, the views on improving the quality of tourism services of enterprises in Hanoi are summarized as follows:

(1). Identifying the tour guide profession as one of the important professions in tourism, a profession that breathes life into culture, history, spirituality, craft villages, landscapes, etc.

(2). Pay attention to creating the best conditions for tour guides to have high professional qualifications and confidence in their work.

(3). Conduct learning, training, skill and professional development activities, and improve the skills of tour guides.

(4). Link to deepen research and share information. Encourage excellent tour guides to participate in excellent tour guide competitions organized by cities or provinces across the country to create conditions for them to learn from other colleagues, gain experience in new environments and improve the quality of customer service.

(5). Build, maintain and develop a team of professional tour guides and collaborators. Evaluate tour guide effectiveness through working capacity and surveying tourists' opinions.

(6). Deploy and widely disseminate the provisions of the Law on Tourism so that tour guides can operate in accordance with the law.

(7). The work of inspecting and supervising tour guides' activities in compliance with the law must be focused on continuously and regularly, especially in current conditions.

to limit the situation of "sitting guide".

Current reality shows that, developing a team of tour guides must first improve the capacity of those working in management. Managers must be truly capable people to lead the tour guide team. Encourage tour guides to contribute their ideas in improving the quality of customer service and building tourism products suitable to the reality of the tourist area as well as the needs of tourists. Invest in multilingual automatic tour guide equipment to serve even customers who use rare foreign languages.

4.2 Some solutions to improve the quality of tour guides of travel agencies in Hanoi

4.2.1. Innovation in tour guide recruitment

Labor recruitment helps enterprises maintain and develop human resources to meet production and business needs. Based on the current situation of labor quality mentioned above, it can be seen that in order to improve the quality of labor, right from the labor recruitment stage, labor recruitment enterprises need to implement a systematic and professional manner to recruit labor with good professional qualifications and working capacity. However, in reality, when recruiting labor during peak season, labor recruitment enterprises only check the practice card, capacity profile and experience of labor recruitment agents, but do not have specific recruitment criteria. Therefore, in order to recruit labor recruitment agents that meet the needs of enterprises, labor recruitment enterprises need to implement the following contents well:

Investing in creating a source of recruitment, improving the quality of HDVDL right from the recruitment stage . Students, especially new graduates, are often very interested and enthusiastic when working, expressing themselves in their work. Besides, they are dynamic, youthful, enthusiastic, love for the profession, the spirit of learning, not afraid of difficulties, ... Those factors have a very significant effect on the quality of labor. Using this source of recruitment will bring great efficiency in work, especially in recruitment, it will be a source of quality and abundant recruitment. In fact, receiving interns at DNLH is not much due to the area of the premises, the nature of the profession is to have a guide card .... If DNLH has a plan to receive interns, they can invest in this source of subjects. When students come to the enterprise for internship, they will be assigned specific tasks and evaluated on the assigned results, from which, the enterprise will select good, capable and potential students. After finishing the internship, the company can “recruit” those students to work for them. In addition, because they have interned at the company, these students have a certain understanding of the company, the job, are relatively familiar with the job, so it will be easier when they start working officially and the company also saves time and money for recruitment.

They. In addition, enterprises should also have close relationships with schools that teach subjects suitable for their fields of operation. Every year, tourism enterprises can contact tourism training institutions to organize job fairs to create opportunities for students to participate in recruitment, or they can ask the school to introduce good and potential students, approach those students and select the right person. To reduce recruitment costs, it is necessary to build relationships with training institutions to have information about those studying at the school. Another form of recruitment that is quite effective is that enterprises can offer some scholarships to encourage learning for students majoring in tourism with good academic results and have a commitment to accept these people into the unit to work after graduation if the graduation results are good or excellent and meet the requirements of the recruiting unit.

Maximize recruitment sources . Currently, there are many recruitment sources, but the enterprises have not really taken advantage of and exploited them to the fullest. Enterprises only access recruitment sources through some websites, through the introduction of company members. Therefore, they have missed many other abundant recruitment sources such as: students with professional capacity who are about to graduate, students coming to do internships, candidates introduced through job fairs, trade fairs, job brokerage centers, tour guide associations, etc. To take advantage of these recruitment sources, the enterprises can, through relationships with universities, colleges, vocational schools, vocational training schools, etc., search for good and excellent students; accept students for internships at the company, assign work to evaluate, select skilled interns to recruit immediately after they graduate; Send people to attend job fairs, cooperate with some reputable job brokerage centers and professional associations to recruit the desired tour guides.

Change the content of the test and assessment in the recruitment process, continuously update and innovate to suit the practical situation. The content of the test and assessment plays an important role in evaluating candidates, therefore, the more accurate the assessment is, the greater the possibility of recruiting suitable human resources. Currently, if the enterprises do not have a specialized department to develop tests and assessments for candidates to recruit, the enterprises can hire experts to do it according to their requirements, periodically review the content and modify and supplement it accordingly. Pay attention to the gender structure when recruiting, give priority to recruiting men because the characteristics of the industry are subject to many harsh environmental impacts and the physical requirements of workers are also higher. Meanwhile, the physical strength of men

The salary of male employees is usually higher than that of female employees, and they do not take maternity leave or sick leave compared to female employees. Therefore, if more male employees are employed, productivity and work efficiency will be higher. In addition, DNLH also saves some of the cost of paying employees when they take leave.

Build a specific and detailed recruitment process. This helps businesses save time working between departments, avoid errors and who is responsible, how the recruitment process takes place. In the recruitment process, there must be requirements for personnel, regimes and recruitment completion time. Before conducting recruitment, it is necessary to build a recruitment plan and standards to ensure the correct requirements and progress. This has a great impact on the quality and results of recruitment.

The method of selecting tour guides is based on evaluating and screening profiles to ensure the requirements of knowledge, skills and experience, then conducting direct interviews. The interviews are conducted by the director, the head of the operating department/guide and the human resources officer. The system of interview questions and criteria for evaluating interview results are prepared by the human resources department according to standards.

For the recruitment target of permanent tour guides, tour operators need to develop a detailed job description, fully demonstrating the nature of the job, tasks, requirements, form, location, working hours, salary, etc. in detail to attract candidates. For permanent tour guides working full-time at the company, the recruitment process can be done by using the directory of tour guides who regularly lead tours, have experience, have worked with or have knowledge of the company to select the best people from these to invite to cooperate.

For tour guides who are collaborators or cooperate on a case-by-case basis, tour operators need to determine the characteristics of each customer market, product, route, nature of the tour group, etc. to set up recruitment criteria suitable for the team of collaborating tour guides. For collaborating tour guides, the source of candidates should be based on recommendations from managers and specialists in the company, who know and have relationships with these freelance tour guides through their studies or working time at other companies. In addition, the company also needs to use recruitment postings through online channels on the company's websites, Fanpage and some recruitment units such as Vietnamwork, my job, 24h recruitment, etc. to collect candidates.

In recruiting tour guides, businesses should emphasize the professional capacity and ethics of tour guides to avoid the situation where tour guides lack enthusiasm, have sketchy professional knowledge, and poor skills but advertise themselves excessively and recklessly.

accepted as collaborators for enterprises. Enterprises can use the criteria proposed by the researchers as a basis for recruiting quality tour guides. Enterprises can cooperate to limit or not use tour guides that are complained about by customers, especially regarding ethical issues.

If DNLH can perform the recruitment process well with clear and public criteria, invest and exploit the maximum recruitment source, it will help the enterprise to be proactive in business activities, have a stable and quality-assured team of tour guides, and increase business efficiency for the enterprise.

4.2.2. Perfecting the organization of training and career development for tour guides

Every employee wants to develop and improve their skills and professional knowledge to work better and have more promotion opportunities. If the company organizes annual skill training and professional training sessions and outlines a promotion roadmap, it will attract and retain talented people more effectively. Professional training and professional development for employees is not only carried out for newly recruited people but also periodically for those who have worked for a long time at the company. Professional training and professional development aims to maintain and develop employees' skills, update professional knowledge, thereby improving the quality of human resources. Based on the current situation of the quality of tour guides investigated above, along with the reality of customer feedback from companies on the professional qualifications, skills and working attitudes of tour guides, it can be seen that whether tour guides have a lot of experience or young tour guides, they all need to be trained. However, for each subject, there will be a form, content, and training method suitable to the actual conditions of the DNLH. To improve the quality of HDVDL, DNLH need to do well the following contents:

Purpose of training and career development: Directly help the team of tour guides to perform better the specific and specialized requirements of the job; Update new skills and knowledge for tour guides; Avoid outdated management thanks to the guidance of new management methods suitable for changes in technology processes, business environment techniques; Prepare the next generation of management and professional staff by equipping them with the necessary skills for future promotion opportunities; Satisfy the development needs of the tour guides team because the necessary new professional skills will stimulate tour guides to perform better and thus have more promotion opportunities.

Develop a policy for training and developing a team of professional tour guides. First of all, it is necessary to foster new, specialized knowledge and skills for tour guides. Research shows that the support of enterprises in organizing specialized training courses

In-depth training or refresher courses for new programs are essential for tour guides. A good tour guide needs to have good product knowledge, good communication skills, and the right attitude towards service. Training is a quality assurance measure, widely recognized as an important means of improving the service standards of the tour guide profession. In addition, organizational culture is essential in supporting the learning and development of tour guides. Next, diversify training and refresher programs according to each training subject.

Variety of training forms

- On the job training

On-the-job training is a form of direct training at the workplace, in which newly recruited tour guides will learn the knowledge and skills necessary for the job through actual work under the direct guidance of more experienced tour guides. This group includes the following forms:

+ On-the-job training

The training process begins with an introduction and explanation by an experienced instructor of the job objectives and detailed step-by-step instructions on how to perform the operations. The new instructor will grasp the job skills through observation, discussion, learning and experimentation until mastery under the close guidance and instruction of the instructor.

+ Vocational training

In this form, the training program starts with theoretical learning at the company. Then the new tour guides will be sent to the workplace under the guidance of experienced tour guides, practicing the guiding work until they master all professional skills.

The above forms are all applied to newly recruited tour guides at the enterprise. As for the collaborating tour guides, they themselves have specialized knowledge of tourism and certain professional skills, so the tourism enterprises only apply training on knowledge about the goals, principles, products, customer markets, and specific routes of the enterprise so that the collaborating tour guides can work better and be more confident when performing their guiding duties. Activities are conducted through specialized classes held regularly, year-round to promptly consolidate skills and update knowledge for tour guides.

- Off-the-job training

Off-the-job training is a form of training in which the training is separated from actual work. Forms include:

+ Open business side classes

For relatively complex tour guide jobs and jobs with specific characteristics, sometimes training by mentoring cannot meet both quantity and quality requirements. Enterprises can organize training classes with equipment and facilities specifically for training according to the main products of the enterprise.

In this form, the training program consists of two parts: Theory and practice. The theory part is taught centrally by experienced tour guides and business managers, sales managers. The practice part is conducted on training trips, at tourist destinations, by experienced tour guides. This training form is suitable for newly recruited tour guides.

Training programs should emphasize updating knowledge, new information about products and how to handle specific situations of each type of program as well as spending an appropriate amount of time sharing experience guiding in the tour program.

+ Send tour guides to study to improve knowledge and skills

Whether you are a regular tour guide or a collaborator, you must constantly improve your skills. After being sent to study by a business, tour guides who are collaborators must also commit to prioritizing long-term cooperation with the DNLH.

Although the course to obtain a tour guide certificate has all the necessary topics, the amount of information and knowledge is only at a basic level. Enterprises join hands with organizations, associations, and training institutions to design training programs, specialized training on tour guide skills. The development of training programs should identify clear target groups and goals, for example, a program specifically for tour guides who are not specialized in tour guiding - tourism, a training program specifically for tour guides in charge of newly designed tour programs, a training program for tour guides specializing in guiding guests on cultural, historical, discovery, adventure, and MICE tour programs. At the same time, every year, it is necessary to create conditions for tour guides to participate in short-term training courses organized by training institutions and management agencies during the off-season of tourism; Encourage tour guides to accumulate experience after each trip, self-study, and find out and update new information on laws and socio-economics. In particular, tour guides must always be reminded to cultivate professional ethics.

+ Organize conferences and discussions

Conferences and discussions can be held at the company or at a tourist destination outside the company, and can be organized separately or in combination with other training programs. During the discussions, the tour guide team will discuss each topic.

under the guidance of the group leader and thereby learn the necessary knowledge and experience.

+ Organize domestic and international farm trips for tour guides at preferential prices so that tour guides have the opportunity to exchange, visit, and learn from each other about knowledge, expertise, and domestic and international routes.

+ Encourage excellent tour guides of enterprises to participate in excellent tour guide competitions organized by the City or provinces across the country to create conditions for them to learn from other colleagues, gain experience in new environments, and accumulate more experience to improve the quality of customer service. Encourage tour guides to participate in short-term classes during the off-season to improve their professional skills.

For businesses that are using tour guides who do not have a card, they need to plan for tour guides who do not have a card to go to school to get a tour guide card. Promote the spirit of self-training of tour guides in all aspects. Tour guides must always improve their knowledge of culture, history, architecture, fine arts, etc. and try to master a foreign language and professional skills to calmly deal with situations that arise when leading tours. But sometimes communicating well in a foreign language without good knowledge, interesting things about national history and culture will become a limitation for the tourism products of the tour guide. That is why tour guides must combine both, foreign language proficiency and professional knowledge, so that when leading guests, each tour guide will become a historian, a diplomat, a sharp marketer, an organizer, a professional manager capable of assisting the group of guests in the best way.

Most of the enterprises have plans to train tour guides but do not have plans to develop the career of tour guides, they do not realize the need for this plan. Reality shows that enterprises can only develop well when they have and implement a business development strategy and have qualified human resources who are committed to implementing the development strategy of the enterprise. Therefore, business owners must change their perception of developing tour guides. Enterprises need to carry out career development work formally because it will motivate and encourage employees better. Enterprises need to make plans to appoint tour guides to management positions, and have plans to support them in implementing their career plans. Creating a direction for excellent tour guides is to create for the enterprise itself a strong human resource, maintaining stability in operations when there is a shortage of human resources. Promoting and creating opportunities for tour guides to advance can help them realize new opportunities for career development, and even new challenges that are still waiting for them ahead. Rotating tour guides to new markets, new products, new roles also helps businesses fill in personnel gaps.

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