Guides' fees

As a qualified tourist guide and former president of the Malta Union of Tourist Guides I would like to comment on Walk Ways carried in the On The Dot (October 10).

I would like to mention that in both the courses organised by the Institute of Tourism Studies and the Malta University Services tourist guides are trained in voice projection. The guide will adjust the volume of her/his voice to suit the size of the group while ensuring that there is no disturbance to others nearby. Should it happen that the guide is not being heard by his/her clients I can assure you that these paying tourists will let him/her know.

The correspondent seems to be totally amazed and even a little disgusted that tourist guides might actually be paid for providing the service of a commentary during a tour and further states "as if the information they were giving out was being paid for". These comments give me the impression that it is the general practice of tourist guides to take groups around as an act of charity. I can however assure you that the members of the group who are being taken around have actually paid for the tour and that the tourist guide receives a fee, thus makes a living from guiding. Tours are an important part of the tourism industry and I believe that it is the norm in any tourist destination (not just in Malta) that these kinds of services are paid for.

I would like to conclude by asking the correspondent how he would feel if he paid for a hotel room, car hire, consultation with a doctor, architect or lawyer or maybe even a guided tour and then discovered that he would have to share this service with a "third party"?