Is a certified tourist guide for Greece, a FEG & WFTGA tourist guide trainer and elected as the FEG ExCo president
Major Accomplishments of The European Federation of Tourist Guide Associations
The European Federation of Tourist Guide Associations (FEG) was established in 1986 and has worked tirelessly over the last 30+ years to promote qualified and professional tourist guides in Europe. Below are ten of the major accomplishments of the organization:
1) The European Federation of Tourist Guide Associations is in contact with the relevant European Union General Directorates and Members of the European Parliament on various issues concerning tourist guides, tourism, culture and funded projects.
2) The European Federation of Tourist Guide Associations has actively participated for several years - along with its member-associations and training experts - in all meetings of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) Working Groups, drafting the CEN European standards EN13809:2003 on the "Tourism Terminology in Europe" and the EN15565:2008 on the "Minimum qualifications for tourist guide training programmes in Europe."
Updating FEG country member delegates on new FEG initiatives. Crete 2019 ©FEG
3) The European Federation of Tourist Guide Associations has created and delivers - via its Training Consultancy Group and its accredited trainers - many specialised courses and seminars for qualified tourist guides, including the 7-day "Sharing Best Practice" and the 7-day "Trainer Training" course. Starting from 2009 until 2019, FEG trainers have delivered themed seminars or general guiding skills courses to 550 qualified tourist guides from 24 countries across Europe.
4) The European Federation of Tourist Guide Associations has created and delivers the "T-GUIDE" course on "Guiding people with learning disabilities" by certifying - along with the European Network for Accessible Tourism - the qualified tourist guides who pass the course's 4 stage assessments.
5) The European Federation of Tourist Guide Associations realised, as an investment for the future of our professional qualifications and practical skills for all tourist guides in Europe, sponsored training to appointed colleagues among its membership. Offered courses were in 2017 the 7-day course "Sharing Best Practice" and in 2018 the 7-day course "Training Trainers", in order to support the certification of new FEG accredited trainers speaking various European languages. These future FEG trainers will be soon ready and fully qualified to offer new courses, workshops and seminars to their own countries' colleagues or during the annual FEG meetings.
”Training Trainers” Course, Faro, 2018. New Trainers hard at work ©FEG
6) The European Federation of Tourist Guide Associations experienced trainers offer advice and expertise to tourist guide associations on how to adjust their tourist guide training programmes according to the above EN15565:2008 European standard and certifies their programmes for the CEN standard implementation.
7) The European Federation of Tourist Guide Associations has signed agreements and started working with its training platform partners on its first new online e-learning seminars on popular topics and routes, to be offered to qualified tourist guides across Europe as a life-long training.The first online seminar for qualified tourist guides-members of the FEG associations is already launched by the World Food Travel Association on gastronomy for “Culinary-certified tourist guides”.
8) The European Federation of Tourist Guide Associations has partnered with the Live Private Guided Tours app, a company based in Norway, as the only app world-wide to support only certified tourist guides in its member countries for online bookings for privately guided experiences in our own areas of qualification.
FEG member guide in action. Crete 2019 ©FEG
9) The European Federation of Tourist Guide Associations participates in European Union funded project partnerships, like Leonardo Da Vinci, Horizon2020, in order to conduct research, to offer expertise and workshops, as well as to improve the guiding skills and theoretical knowledge of its members, the qualified tourist guides.
10) The European Federation of Tourist Guide Associations is a member of the European Tourism Manifesto group along with more than 45 other tourism stakeholders, with a particular remit on "Skills & Qualifications" subgroup.
