Cancel the degrading and deregulation of the tourist guides' profession in Greece

The Ministry of Tourism is recommending to the Parliament for approval a bill which attempts to "modernize" the profession of the tour guide. Among other things, the proposed definition of the tour guide limits his work to closed and enclosed spaces, despite the fact that the history, sights and culture of Greece are not "enclosed". At the same time, the efforts and proposals of the guides to strengthen the control of illegal guided tours are not listened to, while even the work of the School of Guides is degraded. Modernizing the legislation on guides, in a country with tens of millions of tourists every year, cannot mean degrading their work. In the name of "competitiveness" the guided tour cannot be replaced by the "escort". Tour, without serious education, without education, without experience, without protection of the concept and the profession is not understood. Therefore, we express our opposition to the degradation of our profession and its substitution by the services of unfit persons and we request:
a) the recognition of the significantly multidimensional and multifaceted role of the tour guide, through our proposals for its definition.
b) the quality education and training of Guides: upgrade of Guide Schools, reduction of the annual maximum possible number of two-month fast-paced seminars and the abolition of the possibility of conducting them by Lifelong Learning Centers.
c) combating the phenomenon of illegal guided tours
​Even at the last moment, we call on the Ministry, the Government, the Parliament of the Greeks, to rise to the occasion and recognize in practice the importance of the profession of the Tour Guide, who is - literally - the living representative of Greece to its visitors.