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- USE for tourism: guides, tour guides and conductors are in no hurry to pass certification
USE for tourism: guides, tour guides and conductors are in no hurry to pass certification
From March 1, 2025, tour guides, guides-interpreters and guide instructors will be able to work legally only if they are certified. But not all specialists are in a hurry to pass it. Many count on a postponement. It will not be, assured "Izvestia" in the Ministry of Economic Development. But there will be fines, but, perhaps, a little later, clarified in the State Duma. Now the amendments to the CAO are being prepared for the second reading. Tourists will not be left without escorts. According to the regulator, as of January 1, Russia certified 10,170 tour guides and guides-interpreters, as well as 5,433 instructor-guides. Izvestia found out how the process is going on and who will take tourists on excursions and to the mountains.
Indicative figures
The Ministry of Economic Development named the leading regions by the number of certified guides-interpreters and tour guides. In first place and with a significant gap is St. Petersburg. In the city on the Neva River were certified 1622 specialists, in Moscow, which took second place, - 770. Next come Crimea (468), Tatarstan (447) and Yaroslavl region (374). So far, no tour guide or interpreter has been certified in Tyva. One each in Yakutia, the Chukotka Autonomous District and the Jewish Autonomous Region. The best among the regions-outsiders in terms of the number of certified specialists was the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, where there are 4 of them.
It is difficult to say how many people actually drive excursions. In Moscow, for example, earlier the figure of about 4000 guides and guides-interpreters was named.
In the Murmansk region the ratio of certified and working (legally and not) guides about 1 to 3. Elena Medvedeva, general director of the company "Raduga Severa", a member of the Attestation Commission of the region, told "Izvestia" that at the moment 184 people out of about 600 or more who work with tourists have been certified in the region.
Is it difficult to pass the exam
At the same time, according to the guides-interpreters and tour guides themselves, it is not difficult to pass the certification. "Everything is very friendly there. Anyone who really wants to can pass it," said guide-translator of the Chinese language Dmitry Dobrolyubov.
Svetlana K., a guide from the capital, said that the main difficulties were technical. "I passed last summer. The reception was very loyal. The atmosphere was quite good-natured, I did not get the feeling that they were trying to fail me, to ask questions not within the framework of the topics that we prepared for the exam," she said.
The certification was held online, the hardest part, according to her, was organizing the process: adjusting the photo to the right format, setting up the camera correctly, sending the test results (the first theoretical part of the exam, mandatory for those who have worked for less than three years) along with a video recording of the process of answering questions.
Every first one is a guide
By the way, this ease of passing is sometimes frowned upon by specialists. "At us, unfortunately, it is considered to be an easy job, - said Elena Medvedeva. - In Murmansk now every first is a guide. Here he is a cab driver, hairdresser, builder in the morning and a guide in the evening. He took some online courses and drives tourists around in his car, telling them: look to the right, look to the left.
"Sometimes a person comes in, and I see that he just memorized something, or pulled a lucky ticket, told a story and got a certification. But I'm very strict with examiners. If I realize that I can't vote for something, I always vote against it. Because, unfortunately, one is often horrified when one hears guides on the street who have received certification."
"But if a guide fails the exam and tries a second time, with more knowledge, attitudes change," she added.
Problems with geography
But the guides-interpreters and tour guides themselves also have censures to the certification. For example, to the geography, and to the fact that it is too wide, and to the fact that "narrow".
"Attestation is held at once at the regional level. For guides working only in one city, it can be difficult to pass the test if the questions do not relate to their specialization. For example, in the practical tasks of the Moscow region there may be a question related to Sergiev Posad. In this case, a guide working, say, in Serpukhov or Kolomna, has to memorize the answers to the questions without having a deep knowledge of the entire region," said Lyudmila Frolova, director of the Lyudmila Frolova Tourism Center, a certified tour guide of the Moscow and Kaluga regions, who has been repeatedly involved as a member of the certification commission of tour guides of the Moscow region.
According to her, the positive point is that the guide can familiarize himself with the questions in advance. "Nevertheless, the certification should be treated as an exam, and, unfortunately, many practicing guides have neither time nor opportunity for thorough preparation," she said.
Svetlana K., on the contrary, complained that having passed the certification, she can work only in Moscow. "I, for example, took tourists to Tula, Suzdal and Kolomna. It turns out that now I have to be certified in each of these regions," she said. - But just physically tour guides do not have enough time for this". In her opinion, perhaps, it is necessary to approach this system in some other way, to check first of all the skills of a guide.
Passed by the lists
The situation is different for instructors-guides. They are certified without reference to the region, and by type of activity in sports federations, members of certification commissions which are participants of all-Russian and international competitions in sports tourism, mountaineering and underwater sports.
The instructor-guide has the right to accompany tourists on the routes belonging to the types and categories of complexity, for which he is certified, on the territory of all Russia.
The statistics on the routes is as follows:
- Pedestrian - 2972 instructor-guides.
- Water - 2399.
- Mountain - 1143.
- Mountaineering - 913.
- Skiing - 484.
- Speleological - 175.
- Underwater - 188.
There are nuances here. By July 1, 2024, sports federations and Russian tour operators submitted their lists of instructor-guides. They got into the register automatically, they will have to be certified by October 1, 2026.
Irina Glazkova, executive secretary and methodologist of the working group of the Federation of Sports Tourism, which deals with the certification of guide instructors, explained that the same person can be certified for several types of routes.
According to her, there are 4,953 people in the register now, they got into it back in the summer according to the lists of federations and tour operators. "From October to December last year we held 5 attestations, 54 guide instructors came to them. But almost all of them were already in the register and decided to confirm their qualification in advance, not in 2026," explained Irina Glazkova.
Expensive certification
Attestation for instructors-guides are carried out exactly in the conditions in which they will accompany tourists, takes from two to five days in the natural environment, on the appropriate type of tourism relief. The skills of orientation, first aid, actions in emergency situations, as well as general tourist and special training are tested.
- To date, 15 regional certification centers have been established, which are located in regions where active tourism is popular. For example, in the Moscow region, Lenoblast, Altai, Kamchatka, Krasnoyarsk, Perm, Khabarovsk, Krasnodar Krai, Karelia, Bashkiria, Sverdlovsk and Irkutsk regions, in Crimea, Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria, - said Irina Glazkova.
As it is specified in Federation of sports tourism, it is not difficult for an instructor-guide, who has appropriate qualification and training, to pass certification.
But it is paid, the cost depends on the type of tourism and category of complexity. For hiking tourism of the 1st category of complexity the price is 29 thousand rubles, and for mountain tourism (combined relief: rocky + snow and ice) - 48 thousand rubles. There are options for combinations: hiking + water, hiking + speleological or skiing. The cost is from 39 thousand to 44 thousand. rubles.
"It would be very right to provide support from the state to organizations that send their employees to certification, independently working instructor-guides", - said Irina Glazkova.
- The fact that 54 people came for certification in 2024 is an expected figure. We realized that there might not be such a number. We believe that in 2025-2026 the situation will change. Now we hold daily consultations for potential applicants for certification in 2025 and we notice active interest," said Irina Glazkova.
However, according to her, there is a tendency to take a wait-and-see attitude: "everything can be canceled/changed.
There will be fines
By the way, many tour guides think so. And not only those who are not yet planning to undergo certification.
"Attestation of guides requires a lot of revisions, and, in my opinion, mandatory - will be delayed for a long time. But when it comes into force, it will have a very strong impact on the activities of organizers of illegal excursions", - suggested Lyubov Frolova.
The question is about sanctions. At the end of last year the first reading in the State Duma passed the bill, which amends the CAO on fines for tour guides, guides-interpreters, instructors-guides for work without certification.
The amount of penalties, if we are talking about the provision of services for the passage of routes that require special escort, not certified instructor-guides or without it at all:
- for citizens - from 20 thousand to 40 thousand rubles;
- for officials - from 70 thousand to 100 thousand rubles;
- for legal entities - from 100 thousand to 150 thousand rubles.
For guides-translators and tour guides the fines are lower: from 7 thousand to 10 thousand rubles.
In case of repeated violations the amount of penalties increases.
"The bill to establish administrative responsibility
for violation of mandatory requirements in the tourism industry is planned for consideration in the first quarter of 2025," - reported in the Ministry of Economic Development.
"While amendments to the second reading are being discussed. But on the schedule of movement - so far we expect to adopt it during the session. I can't say more precisely yet. Perhaps the entry date will have to be moved," Natalia Kostenko, deputy chairman of the Tourism Committee from the United Russia faction, clarified to Izvestia.
The Ministry of Economic Development reminded that the absence of established fines for violation in the CAO does not indicate the possibility of non-fulfillment of mandatory requirements. The inspector may issue a prescription to violators to eliminate the detected violations.
Will there be fewer illegal immigrants
Opinions differ on how effective attestation and fines for its absence will be.
"The market perceived attestation ambiguously: some people support it, some do not. This is a normal situation. We believe that attestation will not be abolished as a procedure, but optimization of the process is quite possible. There is an opinion that many people will go into the gray zone. What can be said? Time will show how comfortable it will be to be in this zone," said Irina Glazkova.
But in general, experts are confident that the new rules should improve the safety of tourists on the routes, reduce the number of cases when travelers are led by instructors who do not have sufficient qualifications and training.
In the case of guides-interpreters, the price of the question is not health and life, but knowledge. "The pros are obvious: tourists will receive information from professionals, which will increase their trust in the industry and minimize the risk of misinformation. But there are also minuses - not all professionals will be able to obtain the necessary authorization documents. For example, unlike certified tour guides, history experts without tour guide certificates may be at risk because they do not have the formal qualifications required for certification. This could lead to a shortage of specialists," said Kamila Velibekova, managing partner and founder of Premier Tourism.
According to her, there is a possibility that after the introduction of new requirements, the number of guides-interpreters and tour guides will initially decrease. Some of them may need time to get certification and adapt to the new standards. But in the long run, the standards will provide an incentive for new professionals to enter the industry, possibly offsetting the initial decline in the number of guides.
Opportunities for "all-around" work theoretically remain for individual guides and tour guides, as well as for those who work in companies. For example, not a tour, but a walk with friends with a show of the city, not a guide, but a transfer escort.
The issue with foreign tour leaders who conduct excursions without hiring Russian specialists is also unlikely to be resolved quickly. "I don't see any connection between attestation and the number of illegals. Before there was a license, now there is certification. There were illegals before, there will be illegals now," said Dmitry Dobrolyubov.
"I'm afraid, in order to fight illegal excursions, one certification is not enough, it is a complex and multi-stage process", - added Lyudmila Frolova.
Nevertheless, as specified in the Ministry of Economic Development, the tendency to reduce the number of illegal excursions and hiking trips can be traced already since the introduction of mandatory certification of instructors-guides (July 1, 2024) and will gain momentum since the introduction of regional control (March 1, 2025).
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
