Lately you can see in the main tourist sites and monuments a sign saying only tourguides licensed by the Catalan Government are allowed to give explanations as tourguides there.
In Spain, each Autonomous Community (region) organizes exams to grant licenses to anyone wanting to work as a tourguide. To enter the exam you need to have completed a higher university degree, then pass a multiple-choice test an oral exam proving your specialised knowledge on local history, heritage, culture and tradition, as well as some group dynamics and psycology, economics and politics. In Catalonia you also need to prove you can express yourself in both Spanish and Catalan, and then there are additional language exams for people wishing to work for foreign tourists.
I passed my exam in 2000, and I've worked as an official tourguide of Catalonia ever since. My license is a symbol of my quality and proffessionalism, and I sport my yellow badge somewhere visible always during my tours (I call it "my uniform"!)
With this card, I can explain in any tourist site and I can even skip the lines in most of them when my group is smaller than 10 people (very useful for my private tours!)
Me and my official guide license, with the Forester girls during a tour in the Boqueria Market.
1 comment:
You can now learn more about official and non-official tourguides in my Tripadvisor article:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g187497-c135365/Barcelona:Spain:Barcelona.Tourguides.Must.Be.Licensed.html
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