The head of the tourism guides community: 99% of the guides are unemployed!

The country’s tourist guides have been facing job problems for months; The wave of unemployment of tourist guides had started since the 12-day war, and now the head of the guide community is announcing the unemployment of 99% of guides and a severe recession in tourism.

“Mohammad Hossein Yazdani”, the head of Iran’s tourist guide association, told “Kajaro” about the job status of tourist guides:

The job problems of tourist guides started after the 12-day war and continues. In July of this year and after the war, we had a meeting with the Minister of Tourism and presented 35 requests to help the tourist guides. Among these requests, those related to financial grants or loans with low interest from the places considered by the government had a high priority.

Explaining the status of these requests and their current status, he said:

At the time of Corona, they gave a small loan with high interest to the tourist guides, and the repayment of it brought problems for the guides. This time, we were looking for low-interest loans from sources such as governorates, which were intended to compensate for war damage; Unfortunately, these requests remain in the administrative process and are out of priority in the current situation.

Yazdani also described the current situation of tourist guides in the three main career paths as follows:

Due to the internet outage and embassies being closed, it seems that we shouldn’t have any hope of establishing outbound tours in the near future. According to the talk of increasing the warning level of travel to Iran in more than 20 countries, the situation of incoming tours is also not suitable; It is even said that some countries that had travelers entering Iran at the time of the embargo and pressure have now issued a travel warning to Iran. Even if conditions are right, it normally takes about a year for inbound tours to return to normal.

The head of the country’s tourism guide association added:

Domestic tours are also not in good condition these days, many places and museums are closed in the country. On the other hand, due to economic conditions, domestic travel tours are not within the power and priority of people.

Yazdani stated that the number of tourist guide cards around the country is about 14,000 cards and said:

In the current situation, more than 99% of tourist guides across the country are unemployed. The job of a tourist guide is a professional and stable job for many people, and now this part of the country’s tourist guide community is facing daily living expenses without income.

In the end, he asked for the government’s immediate help to unemployed tourist guides and stated:

Some of the tourist guides earned income from teaching and research in addition to this job, but now due to the conditions of these incomes, this income has also been cut, and the continuation of these conditions will lead to the exit of these people from the guild. We need urgent help from the government in the form of grants or potential loans to solve some of the problems.

If you are a tourist guide, share your job status with us and the Kajaro audience.