Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Every year 21 February is celebrated in many countries of the world on the International Tourist Guide day. This holiday was founded by the World Federation of Tourist Guides associations (WFTGA). 

WFTGA was founded in 1985 within the framework of the First International convention of the Guides and today more than 2 million people from more than 70 countries of the world are its members. 

The holiday of the International Tourist Guide day is celebrated from 1990. Undoubtedly, the profession of a guide is of great importance in the development of relations with the state, after all, it is difficult to imagine that people travel to a country and get information about the sights and places of interest there, as well as people, without the support of professional guides. It is worth to note that by the time of the bug, the situation with the coronavirus pandemic had a negative impact on the activities of the world’s gudes, nevertheless, many of them are trying to keep themselves busy today. C

urrently, 15 guides work as educators in the educational centers under the State committee for tourism development – Samarkand tourism and Service College, Bukhara Tourism College, Khiva tourism and Service College, Margilan tourism and service college, Bostanlik tourism and service college, Tashkent tourism and service college. 

A number of works have also been carried out in Uzbekistan to support the activities of guides in 2020. Including: 

• 40 guides were involved in the implementation of the project "guide portfolio", which includes the preparation of texts and their translation into 11 languages. Guides participating in the project were financing by the Foundation of the State committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for tourism development.

• In June 2020, 15 international courses aimed at improving knowledge and skills of young children were organized, involving international experts from Belgium and the Netherlands. The guides studied on the basis of a grant from the State Committee for Tourism development and the Institute fof tourism development. 

• For current guides, "online author skill areas" are organized in 10 different languages throughout Uzbekistan, which plays an important role in the preparation of young guides by professionals. The project has been in operation since November of the year 2020. The guides who are taking online master classes are funded by the Tourism Development Foundation. 

• Holding the International Forum "Friendship Bridge: Guide 2020 - new opportunities and prospects" for GIDS. The event is attended by experts of the Federation of World guides associations, guides of other countries, large tourist companies and business incubators. Through this forum, it is aimed to find partners (business incubators, accelerators) to improve the knowledge and skills of the guides, conduct a presentation of startups and implement them. During the 2020, webinars have been created, aimed at increasing their knowledge and skills for guides. 

Volunteer assistance was organized by the employees of the State committee for tourism development of the Republic of Uzbekistan for the seriously affected guides during the pandemic. The IDPs were provided with assistance to temporary employment through the Ministry of employment and Labor Relations of the Republic of Uzbekistan. They were invited to apply to the ministry for registration of temporary employment and provided information for communication with the responsible persons. 

At the same time, under the support of the State committee for tourism development, in 2021, the project "Retraining and adaptation of guide-translator, ecscorse leaders and Road leaders to domestic tourism" was launched. Within the framework of the project, seminars, webinars, courses on Uzbek language and IT technologies are organized on a free basis. In addition, since March of 2021, free English language training courses were being launched with the involvement of USA specialists. 

As for the bug, the situation with the pandemic is slowly stabilizing, hunting with foreign countries is recovering, tourists are returning. We believe that in the future, foreign and domestic tourism in our country will develop further, the work carried out during the pandemic, the new knowledge and skills acquired by the guides will help to provide a high level of service to tourists in the post-pandemic period. 

On 21 February – International Tourist Guides day, we congratulate all the professionals and exorcists of Uzbekistan with these words and express our gratitude to them for their contribution to the development of the sphere until today.