FEG

EUROPEAN FEDERATION OF TOURIST GUIDE ASSOCIATIONS

FEDERATION EUROPEENNE DES ASSOCIATIONS DE GUIDES TOURISTIQUES

Euroletter December 2014

Message from
FEG ExCo President
Dear Colleagues
It was a pleasure to once again meet many
friends and colleagues from all over Europe, who
were present at the latest AGM celebrated this
year in Berlin, and which coincided with the 25th
Anniversary celebrations of the fall of the Berlin
Wall, and with two other important celebrations
for our colleagues, the Tourist Guides of
Germany: the 25th Anniversary of the Berlin
Tourist Guides Association and the 20th
Anniversary of the founding of the BVGD (the
National Federation of Tourist Guides of
Germany). Thanks once again for contributing to
the success of our meetings.

which FEG and all of us have been working for

some time, come to fruition. One of the tasks into
which we've all been putting a lot of resources is
that of gaining visibility for the activity of guiding
throughout Europe and that the profession of
Qualified Tourist Guide should be respected by
all, within and without our borders. In May, in our
last Euroletter, we announced the creation and
set up of the portal:

www.fairdealtourseurope.com
A Portal which would like to give visibility to all our
fellow Qualified Tourist Guides.
FEG is delighted to announce that for the year of
2015, all Tourist Guides belonging to the
Associations/Federations members of this
European Federation, will be able to benefit
from a free subscription to the portal. We all
believe this is great news and urge that the
largest possible number of colleagues sign up to
the portal in order to be able to publicise it to the
rest of the world; together we can make this
project a huge success. But there's more: during
2015 tools will be worked on which will help the
management of our daily work and will make
www.fairdealtourseurope.com a useful tool in
our daily lives as Tourist Guides.

Photo: FEG 2014 AGM ExCo & Secretariat, Gala Dinner Berlin, Germany

Christmas is knocking on our doors again, and it's

time to enjoy these warm and sentimental
feelings with our families; at the same time 2014
will be past very shortly and that's why we take
the opportunity to wish you all the best for the
holidays and for the whole of the coming year via
this Euroletter.
The New Year 2015 will see various projects, on

Photo: FEG 2014 Delegates having dinner in Berlin

FEG
EUROPEAN FEDERATION OF TOURIST GUIDE ASSOCIATIONS
FEDERATION EUROPEENNE DES ASSOCIATIONS DE GUIDES TOURISTIQUES

Euroletter December 2014

FEG is also giving the finishing touches to our

two eagerly awaited triptychs and publicity
material which will help with the promotion of our
profession at all the events which our member
Associations feel are appropriate for us to attend.
It's a question once again of gaining
VISIBILITY and credibility and that this
contributes to creating a QUALITY BRAND
which will be recognised within and without the
borders of Europe.
In these times in which the winds of liberalisation
promoted by the European Commission gain
ground daily, our job of creating a quality brand,
recognised as such by all, is vital. We must all
contribute to the success of this arduous
undertaking and the Tourist Guide members of
our FEG member associations / federations
individually play an important role in this work.
At the same time the so-called FREE TOURS
expand ever more and it seems that those
responsible for protecting the interests of our
visitors don't understand the importance of having
suitably qualified tourist guides to perform the
important task of interpreting the heritage of our
cities and ensuring a good image of the same.
Our visitors should be clear on the need to use
properly trained professionals who are the
Ambassadors of Excellence of the places visited.
This brings us to an important point, the
continuing education of all of us as Tourist
Guides, and the development of guiding
techniques and skills for the correct performance
of our activity. FEG is already working on the
development of a longer and broader Train the
Trainer course, on which you can read more in
this same Euroletter.
In this same Euroletter you can read about the
progress of other projects in which FEG is taking
part, such as T-GuiDE for people with learning
difficulties, where FEG is playing an important
role in achieving the objectives of the same.

Last but not least, FEG is following closely the

steps that are being taken by the EC in its efforts
to monitor the implementation of the new
Directive 2013/55 / EC by the member states of
the EU. Again we ask for everyone's cooperation
in the dissemination of the letters we have sent
out, and the sending of them to the competent
authorities thereby avoiding worse problems and
helping to end the ongoing confusion of our
profession with other activities that have nothing

to do with the task of interpreting our historical,

artistic and natural heritage and which are
performed by suitably qualified TGs.
Enjoy this Euroletter.
Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year
to you all !!!
Felices fiestas y un prspero ao 2015
a todos !!!
Carlos Ortega
FEG Chairman

FEG AGM Berlin, 2014

The 16th European Tourist Guide Meeting for
2014 has been very successfully organized on
the 18th-23rd November 2014 by our German
BVGD and Berlin colleagues, for which we
warmly thank them once again through this
newsletter. As usual, it included the social
program for all guests with guided tours, food and
beer, a round table for participating tourist guides,
and the annual delegate General Meeting (AGM)
over the weekend.

FEG
EUROPEAN FEDERATION OF TOURIST GUIDE ASSOCIATIONS
FEDERATION EUROPEENNE DES ASSOCIATIONS DE GUIDES TOURISTIQUES

Euroletter December 2014

friends who contributed in the auction, lottery and

raffle fundraising during the FEG Gala Dinner in
Berlin.

FEG Annual General Meeting 2015

in Moscow, Russia

Photo: Berlin guided tour, FEG AGM

At the same time BVGD celebrated its 20th

Anniversary and the Berlin Tourist Guide
Association celebrated its 25th Anniversary, so
around 170 colleagues across Europe had the
chance to network, to meet once again, to
exchange experiences and ideas, to share
common problems we all face in our guiding
work.

As it has already been announced, it was decided

last year by the FEG AGM in Evora, that the 17th
Annual FEG Tourist Guide European Meeting
on the 17th 22nd November 2015 will be held in
Moscow, Russia and will be hosted by our dear
colleagues of the Moscow Tourist Guide
Association, who prepare a very interesting
program with a pre-meeting tour to St. Petersburg
for you all.
Well soon have more details uploaded on the
FEG website and sent to all FEG memberassociations.

Photo: BVGD President, Ute Jaeger with FEG President Carlos

Ortega, passing the torch to the next FEG AGM 2015 organizer, the
Moscow Tourist Guide Association President, Alexander Osipov

FEG ExCo members elected

Photo: FEG AGM Berlin, delegates at work

Wed also like to express our warm thanks to the

Vienna Guides for their generous donation of 250
EUR to FEG, as well as all the colleagues and

In this last FEG AGM in Berlin, Germany, Nov.

2014, elections took place for two out of the four
Executive Council members, according to FEG
constitution articles.

FEG
EUROPEAN FEDERATION OF TOURIST GUIDE ASSOCIATIONS
FEDERATION EUROPEENNE DES ASSOCIATIONS DE GUIDES TOURISTIQUES

Euroletter December 2014

We hope to meet our Finnish colleagues during

the next AGM in November 2015.

Fair Deal Tours Europe Web Portal

FEG has been working and collaborating with
Fair Deal Tours on the creation of a portal that
meets all the requirements that you felt a proper
Portal for qualified tourist guides had to meet, and
which would advertise ONLY qualified tourist
guides who are members of FEG associations.

Photo: FEG Ex.Co with the new FEG Training Consulting Group
Convener, Viola Lewis (second on the right)

The two elected Ex.Co. Executive Officers are

Guido Lion from Italy, who will be dealing with
the EU portfolio and Paulo Cosme from Portugal,
who continues to hold the post of FEG treasurer.
Carlos Ortega from Spain continues to be the
President of FEG Ex.Co for this new term and Efi
Kalamboukidou from Greece, is still an
Executive Officer, in charge of the FEG training
portfolio.
The FEG delegates also elected two Ex.Co.
Deputies, who are Lisa Zeiler from Austria and
Themis Halvantzi-Stringer from the UK.
The two FEG auditors elected for a two-year term
are Armelle Villepelet from France and Wolther
Von Kieseritzky from Germany.

FEG New Member

FEG welcomes to its family its new associate
member from 2015, the Association of Finland
Tourist Guides. Their membership has been
approved and ratified by the delegates in the last
FEG AGM in Berlin.

The best way for the portals development and

promotion to colleagues across Europe and to
potential clients across the world seeking for a
qualified tourist guide was discussed in our Berlin
FEG AGM.
It has been decided by the FEG AGM in Berlin
that for the calendar year 2015 the
subscription of the qualified tourist guides of
FEG member-associations to the FDT portal
will be free of charge, in order to promote the
new portal to tourist guides and to clients as
much as possible. Administration and advertising
costs during that period shall be covered by FEG
itself on behalf of the members subscribed to
FDT portal.
So, use this unique opportunity, register
yourself and create your own profile and page
with the tours you offer on FDT portal today!
You can join the Portal under the following
address:

www.fairdealtourseurope.com
We remind you that - as agreed in previous FEG
AGMs and stated under the FDT terms and
conditions - any person who is not a qualified
tourist guide in the country or region or city
he/she claims he/she is and is not a member of a
FEG association-member will be removed from

FEG
EUROPEAN FEDERATION OF TOURIST GUIDE ASSOCIATIONS
FEDERATION EUROPEENNE DES ASSOCIATIONS DE GUIDES TOURISTIQUES

Euroletter December 2014

the portal after the relevant check done by each

countrys tourist guide association. As an
additional service quality check, we ask you all to
regularly monitor yourselves who is registered
under your own country or region and if you do
not know them, please report this to your own
association.

FEG new website

FEG has already launched its new website, now
functioning under a safer security mode, better
protected against cyber attacks.
The address is as always at:

http://www.feg-touristguides.com/

Viola feels she can use her experience of this

work for FEG and sets herself three aims in her
two-year tenure as convener of the FEG TCG:
Convening means bringing together and this is
what I hope to do for and with the FEG Trainer
Team. Secondly, as the link between the trainer
team and Efi Kalamboukidou, the training
representative on the ExCo, to up-date, develop
and document FEGs training policy and
activities. And, lastly, avoid reinventing the wheel,
building on existing strengths and creating
training programs, specifically tailored for our
European Tourist Guide colleagues, in content
and level. In other words, complementing rather
than duplicating what is done elsewhere. Quite a
challenge, but one achievable by the professional
FEG team. I look forward to being a valuable part
of that team.

Please, check your contacts, info and logos and

let us know if there are amendments need to be
done concerning your associations.

FEG Training Policy

The two-year term of the FEG Training Consulting
Group (TCG) convener, Tom Hooper, has recently
expired. Tom was too busy to continue at this
post, so the new TCG convener taking over is
now Viola Lewis.
Before becoming a Blue Badge Tourist Guide for
Scotland, Viola worked for a European
Commission Program for regional co-operation
with central and eastern Europe, developing and
monitoring a large number of small capacity
building projects. Many of these projects dealt
with tourism and all had training aspects. No
surprise then that Viola continued her training
activity and is now an accredited trainer with the
Scottish Tourist Guides Association (STGA), the
WFTGA and FEG. Viola has served on the Board
of STGA and for almost 5 years held the position
of Training Manager, aiming to build a team of
trainers, manifesting the trainer training and
documenting and developing procedures.

Photo: FEG AGM 2014 Berlin Round Table

Collaboration between the FEG TCG and the

FEG Ex.Co. has already started, in order to
develop FEGs training policy further and to
create courses in need for our memberassociations. Your ExCo is taking steps forward
with the valuable help of our FEG trainer and
former FEG President, Richard Skinner, in the
development of a new Train the Trainer
course, which will improve the quality of our
tourist guide training in the future.

FEG
EUROPEAN FEDERATION OF TOURIST GUIDE ASSOCIATIONS
FEDERATION EUROPEENNE DES ASSOCIATIONS DE GUIDES TOURISTIQUES

Euroletter December 2014

Additionally, a course for Sharing Best

Practice, which has also been initiated by
Richard Skinner is to be developed and promoted
by FEG for the tourist guides of all countries.
The FEG Training Glossary which has been
developed by Viola Lewis in the previous year
will soon be uploaded on new FEG website in the
members only section.

After sharing our experiences and knowledge on

this matter once again in Berlin, FEG has issued
a letter to the relevant EU Unit Directors and
to national authorities to address these
challenges and to inform all about the
dangers of unqualified tourism services for
the destinations reputation as well as for the
local economy and national laws.

Free Tours concern

This FEG letter has also been publicised as a

press release and is available at your own
associations upon request.

The issue of the so-called Free Tours, which

have been offered in the last years across Europe
by unqualified personnel, paid less to keep costs
down was discussed among FEG delegates once
again in Berlin AGM. There must be no major city
left in Europe, where such unqualified (and
possibly untaxed and uninsured) persons or
companies operate by advertising and offering
tours for free, counting on tips the tourist will give
at the end of the tour. The pattern repeats itself,
no matter if guiding is regulated or non-regulated
in our countries. These tours grow more and
more every year under different and innovative
names and tourist guides keep losing their work
through this kind of unfair competition.

FEG promotion material

FEGs effort to promote the Qualified Tourist
Guide never stops. We have produced two new
publicity brochures to promote the use of
qualified tourist guides and to showcase the
importance of our activity in the promotion of any
destination.
One of them is the new FEG publicity postcard,
including a few short messages to the public, as
they were proposed to us by our former Ex.Co.
colleague, Ingrid Wallenborg. The other one is
the new and more detailed FEG promotion
brochure (tryptich) on the work of tourist guides,
CEN standards, terminology, etc.
Both kinds of FEG promotion material are already
uploaded on the FEG website in pdf form for you
to see, to print and to use.
They have been printed by FEG to be used in
the tourism fairs, conferences, forums where
FEG is represented for your own visibility.

Photo: FEG AGM Berlin, delegates at work

Within 2015 FEG plans to distribute them in the

FITUR fair in Madrid at the end of January, in
the ITB fair in Berlin in the beginning of March
and then in the WTM, London in the beginning of
November, with the help of our associationmembers and local colleagues in these places.

FEG
EUROPEAN FEDERATION OF TOURIST GUIDE ASSOCIATIONS
FEDERATION EUROPEENNE DES ASSOCIATIONS DE GUIDES TOURISTIQUES

Euroletter December 2014

Vienna Chamber - and has been sent to all

associations by FEG secretariat. We ask you
to disseminate it at every possible
opportunity. This will help your national
competent authority for tourist guides and also
your MEPs to understand the important role of
the tourist guide in your country.
The famous now former - Directive 2005/36/EC
on recognition of professional qualifications,
has been modernized and published in 2013
under the new number 2013/55/EC. FEG Ex.Co.
and delegates have been following it closely and
lobbying about some of its articles over the last
few years. EU member-states now have to
implement it in their national legislation as it
concerns all their regulated professions by
18/01/2016. Therefore, it is still not too late for
you all to disseminate the here above mentioned
FEG letter regarding our profession.

Photo: FEG Ex.Co. Paulo Cosme at the WTM, London 2014

In case you need any of this material for your own

use, your countrys authorities or events, please
address to FEG treasurer, Paulo Cosme, who
can send some to you, depending on the number
of copies available at that time.
Ex.Co. Officer, Paulo Cosme, has represented
FEG for the first time in the WTM in London last
November, in order to lobby and to make contacts
with useful people in the tourism business. His
travel costs have been shared between FEG and
SNATTI, our member-association from Portugal.

FEG & EU
FEG continues to work to dispel confusion and to
promote both clarity and transparency and you
are all aware of the advances in this respect. A
letter on this has been drafted by your Ex.Co.
- with the legal help of Dr. Voegl from the

The main new element is that the European

Professional Card (EPC) which has been
introduced by the Directive and the EU
Commission is not been expected to be adopted

FEG
EUROPEAN FEDERATION OF TOURIST GUIDE ASSOCIATIONS
FEDERATION EUROPEENNE DES ASSOCIATIONS DE GUIDES TOURISTIQUES

Euroletter December 2014

by many professions, although the EU has been

trying to advertise it as an easy-to-get-via-the-EU
IMI-system electronic passport (not a real
physical card) for the automatic recognition of
professional qualifications, when an EU citizen
moving to another EU member-state to work.
Even the European professional associations
which originally talked in favour of the EPC, like
doctors, nurses, engineers, they now seem to
reject the project, each one of them for their own
reasons.
Well keep following up the issue of the EPC and
will be informing you if theres any important
outcome about it.
As it is widely accepted and agreed by FEG and
its members across Europe and also mentioned
in the CEN standards EN 13809:2003 and
EN15565:2008,
our
profession,
our
qualifications and our training are areaspecific, therefore non-transferable and theres
no such job as a pan-European tourist guide, so
FEGs position is that such an EPC cannot be of
use for our profession.

voluntarily participating in it with its experts Efi

Kalamboukidou and Lisa Zeiler, with the kind
support of Paulo Cosme for accounting issues.
The T-GuIDE draft Pilot Training and
Competences Manual we have created has
already been tested in two phases in 2014, first in
a meeting in Granada, Spain in June 2014 and
then once again in the Riga, Latvia meeting in
October 2014.
Concerning the recent testing meeting in Riga,
FEG would like to thank our dear colleagues from
Austria Sigrid Alber, Eugenie Altenburg and
Gertrude Frantal, from France Natascha
Marest, Lully Kouyat and Isabelle Terrillon,
as well as the host tourist guides from Latvia Gita
Vigule, Aija Lubeja-Sube and Una Broka for
their contributions and for volunteering to go to
the second T-GuIDE testing phase meeting in
Riga, Latvia on FEG behalf on the 1st and 2nd
October 2014.

A good source of information and lobbying for

FEG is always CEPLIS in Brussels, of which
FEG became a valued member in 2012, and it
updates us on EU news by issuing the CEPLIS
telegrams for its members.
CEPLIS previous general assembly was
organized in Dubrovnik, Croatia last May and
FEG was represented there by our Ex.Co.
member Marina Kristicevic, who offered a
guided city tour to the CEPLIS delegates.

FEG & Leonardo project T-GuiDE

The Leonardo project called T-GuiDE, for
Guiding People with intellectual disabilities
and/or learning difficulties is reaching its final
phase next summer, with FEG actively and

Photo: T-GuIDE project, test tour in Riga, Latvia

FEG
EUROPEAN FEDERATION OF TOURIST GUIDE ASSOCIATIONS
FEDERATION EUROPEENNE DES ASSOCIATIONS DE GUIDES TOURISTIQUES

Euroletter December 2014

Lisa Zeiler, FEG Ex.Co. Deputy, to whom FEG is

most greatful, was there as their FEG leading
moderator in order to explain about the project
works, to participate in and assess a Riga test
tour and to give her feedback on the material
produced so far. The tourist guides from the three
countries have all co-operated perfectly with one
another, having expressed their gratitude for this
useful experience and said they see it as a
unique chance to learn more about T-GuIDE
project, as CPD (Continuous Professional
Development) for the guiding profession.

present the project results and assets for tourist

guides and society to the EU officials, MEPs, EU
Leonardo Agency, tourist guides themselves and
to media. FEG will be present there to promote
the tourist guide profession and high quality
in training and CPD once again.

The next T-GuIDE project meeting and trial tour

will be organized on the 7th -9th January 2015 in
London, UK. Our APTG colleagues will be
helping FEG there, not just with the logistics and
venue offered, but also to demonstrate how to
guide a real group of persons with intellectual
disabilities in the British Museum.

For more info, please have a look at the T-GuIDE

website at: http://www.t-guide.eu

For those tourist guides who are by chance

interested in attending this final T-GuIDE
Brussels meeting on the 31st March, always at
their own expenses, please contact Efi
Kalamboukidou for an invitation.

FEG logo
Reminder: The FEG logo as decided by FEG
AGM may only be used by FEG members and
by their individual members under the condition
that it is mentioned together with the words:
Member of or Club member of

Photo: New FEG Logo

Photo: T-GuIDE project, test tour in Riga, Latvia

Then the very last T-GuIDE meeting will be held

in Brussels, Belgium on the 31st March 2015
and will be hosted by ENAT (European Network
for Accessible Tourism). Its aim is to promote and

Euroletter is produced by FEG - Editor: Efi Kalamboukidou