Date:03/04/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/04/03/stories/2007040322710300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

Guides and lessons to be learnt

S. Annamalai

Do the visitors to this historic city have access to credible information?

LOST FOR RIGHT WORDS? Tourists being briefed about Tirumalai Naick Mahal. — Photo: G. Moorthy

MADURAI: Very few cities around the globe can boast of a history and heritage similar to Madurai. Places of tourist interest are too many in a place that has metamorphosed into a crucible of Tamil culture over a period of 2500 years. The Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple, Subramaniaswamy Temple at Tirupparankundram, Gandhi Museum and Tirumalai Naick Mahal are not the only attractions here. Are there enough guides to take a tourist around all these places?

The number of trained guides does not match the demand, feel stakeholders in the tourism industry. The Tourism Department has on record 16 guides trained by it. It conducts a 10-day programme for prospective guides. There are also a few professional guides. "Tourists, who come in groups, have no difficulty. For them, guides are arranged by the travel agency. It is the individual visitor who finds it difficult to get informed guides," points out

G. Vasudevan, former president of Madurai Travel Club. The tourist flow has improved in the last few years and the number of domestic tourists is always on the rise. This necessitates the availability of guides conversant in many Indian languages. At present, there are five guides in the Meenakshi Temple who are fluent in Indian languages. The existing guides should also strive to learn more Indian languages to extend their service to inland tourists, says C. Ramkumar, president, Tamil Nadu Approved Guides Association.

Commerce speaks

But the concern lies in the proliferation of "unapproved, uninformed guides," who are backed by commercial interests. These `guides,' who can converse even in Italian and Spanish, also persuade the foreign tourists to stay at hotels and shop at commercial establishments of their choice.

Offering `tourism' as a subject in colleges is a suggestion mooted by Mr. Ramkumar to attract more people into the field. For many guides, it is only a part-time job as tourism is a seasonal affair in Madurai. Dr. Vasudevan wants authentic tourism information made available at all important landmarks free of cost in different languages. At present, the Department of Tourism has its information counters at the airport, Mahal and Hotel Tamil Nadu (at two places). Providing audiocassettes on the significance of each spot to tourists, as is done in the West, and installation of more touch-screen information kiosks can minimise the dependence on guides is another suggestion of the Madurai Travel Club.