HamburgGuideSarah hands over her seat in the EXBO of WFTGA
For a year now, I have been co-opted member of the Executive Board of the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations. I have learned so much and have experienced highs and lows – thanks to the pandemic. I had a lot of fun and have met great people from all over the world who – like me – dedicate time, effort and money for their voluntary work. Last week at the hybrid conference a new executive board was elected and I will now hand over my tasks in oder to concentrate on my regional association Hamburg Guides.
WFTGAHybrid a success with digital tools
For us to deliver an in person event and at the same time facilitate the possibility to vote and take part in the event, we decided to carry out a hybrid event – First time in WFTGA’s history. Our original plan to hold the convention in Serbia was unfortunately not possible anymore and so we had six weeks to prepare this hybrid show: website and registration, zoom and technology, elections and biddings, conference place and live transmission – all this had to be included – and WE MADE IT – together with Hybrid-Streaming! Certainly, some things need a bit of polishment but overall, the convention, workshops, excursions, general assembly, live streaming went smoothly and we are looking forward to the next hybrid event…
WFTGA2024 in Syracuse, Italy
During our conference we also chose the next destination of our convention. The winner was Syracuse, Italy, against Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, Istanbul, Turkey, Fukuoka, Japan. This means that at the end of January 2024 a huge amount of tourist guides from around the globe will populate Syracuse in order to celebrate the end of the pandemic, the tourist guide profession and themselves. I am really looking forward to meeting also all those colleagues who were not able to join us last week – or only virtually. The World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations is an affiliate member of UNWTO and is in contact with many international tourism organisations and gives their members teh possibility to exchange ideas and contacts.
Programm des WFTGA 2022
While the delegates of the national associations took care of a new EXBO, the next destination of the conference and of course of all the things an association has to take care of, other participating guides could take part in workshops about photography and interpretation, they could listen to numerous speakers on different topics and take part in the excursions. Panel discussions were moderated and participants could ask questions. Many of the presentations can be seen on the YouTube Channel.
