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Maharashtra govt to provide certified tourist guide training to 1,000 candidates

Maharashtra, a treasure trove of many wonders and has a tremendous tourism potential. The state, which is known for its natural beauty, historical and cultural heritage, has been attracting more number of tourists.

Maharashtra govt to provide certified tourist guide training to 1,000 candidates
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The tourism sector which is still reeling under the stress caused by the outbreak of COVID-19 witnessed a sense of relief in Maharashtra where the government came out with different policies to uplift the sector in the state.

The Maharashtra Tourism department has taken initiative to give free training to 1,000 tourist guides in the state to budding candidates interested in tourism.

The Directorate of Tourism (DoT), Government of Maharashtra has adopted an ‘Online IITF Tourism Facilitator Certification Programme (Guide Training)’ designed by the Ministry of Tourism (MoT), Government of India, to become part of the burgeoning tourism industry to serve as high-quality tour guides at the state level.

This is a digital initiative that aims of creation of an online learning platform to facilitate tourism learning at the candidate’s own time, space, path and pace, eventually paving the way for the creation of Certified Tourist facilitators/Guides of Maharashtra Tourism.

Maharashtra, a treasure trove of many wonders and has tremendous tourism potential. The state, which is known for its natural beauty, historical and cultural heritage, has been attracting more number of tourists.

"This is a golden opportunity for aspiring candidates in the state who want to make a profession in the travelling and tourism industry," said Dhananjay Savalkar.

On the http://iitf.gov.in portal, the basic online course is available in Hindi and English with seven modules of various tourism aspects. The overall programme registration fee is INR 2,000. The SC and ST candidates, the candidates who are domicile residence of the Union Territory of Ladak, Jammu & Kashmir and the candidates who are the domicile residence of Aspirational Districts as identified by NITI AAYOG are exempted from the registration fee, while the examination fee is INR 500.

In order to encourage more and more candidates to pursue the course, The Directorate of Tourism (DoT) has decided to refund the programme fee of INR 2000 to those who successfully complete the IITF tourism facilitator programme.

The eligibility criterion for the online programme is as follows: Candidates between the age group of 18-40 should pass at least 12th grade. And, the candidate aged above 40 years should have passed at least 10thgrade.

Candidates will be awarded an Online Course Completion Certificate (OCC) once they successfully complete all the seven modules of the programme after which, the candidate will be eligible to apply for the exam.

Post the exam, the candidates will have to attend seven days of behaviour skill training conducted by IITTM. Furthermore, the IITF Basic Certificate would be awarded to the candidates who successfully undertake the mandatory internship of seven working days with tour operators approved by the Ministry of Tourism in support of India tourism.

The successful candidates will be allowed to give guide services to any tourist destinations (except ASI sites) in Maharashtra as a Maharashtra Tourism Certified/licensed guide.

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