NEW BLUE BADGE TOURIST GUIDES FOR NORTH EAST ENGLAND
More than two years ago, a group of 23 people from all walks of life started studying to gain the prestigious “North East England Blue Badge”
Their studies and exams have been interrupted by Covid, but soon there will be a whole new group of qualified Blue Badge Tourist Guides in North East England
The Blue Badge is the UK’s official tourist guiding qualification, awarded by the Institute of Tourist Guiding. The award is recognised by the UK Government and by the international travel trade as being the ‘Gold Star’ in tourist guiding.
This is the first Blue Badge course to be run-in North-East England since 2008, involving in-depth study of the culture, history, geography and visitor attractions of the region, together with a variety of national subjects of interest to visitors such as history, geography, architecture, agriculture, history, literature, music and more.
Laura Rhodes, Chair of North East England Tourist Guides said
“Whilst it is important, there’s much more to being an effective tourist guide than just knowing about history. We are looking forward to welcoming a new group of qualified guides who have worked really hard learning about the culture, sights and wealth of visitor attractions in North East England so that they can inform and entertain visitors from within the UK and around the world.”
The students will be presented with their Blue Badge in a ceremony in Durham Town Hall in September, attended by the President of the Institute of Tourist Guiding and the Mayor of Durham. The photo shows the students at the start of the course in 2019 with the then Lord Mayor of Newcastle, Councillor David Down.
There will be new North East England tourist guides qualified to work in English, Spanish and German and they will be available, along with existing members of the North East England Tourist Guides Association, to help with enquiries for group and individual visits to North East England
For further details see https://northeastenglandtouristguides.co.uk/
Or contact Laura Rhodes, 07758 077818