Vijayawada: With a focus on transforming NTR district, particularly Vijayawada, into a tourism hub and providing appropriate tour guide support to tourists keen on exploring various spots in and around the city, the district administration will train about 50 youths who will be exclusively designated as tourist guides to offer better services to visitors.Speaking to TOI, NTR district tourismofficer A Shilpa said, “Fifty youths who are locals of Vijayawada and are aware of the rich history, culture, heritage, and legacy of the city and its various tourist sites will be trained for a period of seven days on soft skills and capacity building. This will enable them to explain the history and significance of tourist spots in various languages for the convenience of tourists visiting Vijayawada from different states.“The tourism officer said individuals with basic English and Hindi communication skills will be trained by the tourism department. Their skills will be further fine-tuned to enhance the tourist experience and provide enriching information about the sites.”We are yet to fix any pay for the tourist guides. This will be finalized after the completion of the training programme and once the tourism packages are officially rolled out, which will happen in the coming days,” Shilpa told TOI.
