Other Organizations

U.S. Contacts
As part of the on-going process to reach out to guide organizations across the United States, the NFTGA-USA has made contact with guides in many other areas of the U.S. Our contacts with guides include those working in Atlanta, Cape Cod, Charleston, Denver, Gettysburg, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Napa Valley, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Puerto Rico, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Silicon Valley, St. Louis and Tucson - just to name a few.

If you know of any U.S. guide organizations that are not members of the NFTGA-USA and that may be interested in finding out more about the NFTGA, OR if you are interested in starting a guide association in your locality, please contact Bobbie Gattuso by clicking on her name.

WFTGA
The NFTGA is a member of the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations or WFTGA.

The WFTGA was formed in 1985 and serves as the Global Forum for Tourist Guides. Membership to the WFTGA is open to non-profit making, independent associations of professional tourist guides from any country in the world. The WFTGA has paid-up members from 43 countries and 73 associations; and is in contact with many more organizations and individuals. The WFTGA literally represents tens of thousands of professional tourist guides on diverse continents.

 A listing of WFTGA member organizations may be found on their website.

"The Hand of Friendship and the Hand of Guidance stretched across the World"

The WFTGA maintains a website (www.wftga.org).

The WFTGA publishes an online newsletter accessible through the WFTGA website. The newsletter is called, "Guidelines Internetion@l."

The WFTGA offers training courses for guides and guide trainers.

International Tourist Guide Day

An initiative of the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations, International Tourist Guide Day (ITGD) is held on or around the 21st of February each year. In 1990, when it was held for the first time, 15 countries participated.

This special day is a public relations event par excellence, drawing the attention of local authorities, fellow citizens and the media to the quality and value of professional tourist guides. Each member country contributes to the success of the day in its own way: coach companies have contributed complimentary coaches, while attractions and museums have opened their doors without charge.

Since the inception of ITGD, local tour guides have underscored their professionalism in an ever-growing number of countries by giving complimentary tours of their local communities, conducting tours for the disabled or disadvantaged persons, children, industry partners, officials and the general public.

Each year the WFTGA acknowledges an increasing awareness of and a growing contribution by both regional and national governments to the International Tourist Guide Day.

WFTGA Conferences

The WFTGA holds an international conference every two years. CLICK HERE to read about the most recent WFTGA conference in the article written by Boston Tour Guide, Yvette Kaplan.

Then plan to attend the 13th biennial WFTGA conference in Bali, Indonesia, January 10-16, 2009. The conference theme will be “Eco -tourism: The Tourist Guides Role.” For more information read: www.baliwftga2009.com.