International Tourist Guide Day 2024: Theme, history and significance

International Tourist Guide Day is celebrated on February 21 every year and serves as a vibrant tribute to the unsung heroes of travel — the tourist guides.

Dedicated to the profession of tourist guides, the day provides an opportunity to highlight the profession on the world stage. These knowledgeable navigators work day and night weaving cultural tapestries and bridge continents and hearts.

It honours people around the world, working as tourist guides, transforming historical dates into vivid tales, decoding cryptic symbols, and making us walk through hidden gems.

International Tourist Guide Day 2024: History

Back in 1989, the International Tourist Guide Day was set in motion at the 3rd WFTGA Convention in Nicosia, Cyprus. The World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations (WFTGA) came into existence in 1985 as a non-profit organisation and has members from over 70 countries around the world, representing over two lakh tourist guides.

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WFTGA serves as the only global forum for tourist guides and is aimed at promoting tourist guides as the ambassadors of a region.

International Tourist Guide Day 2024: History

According to WFTGA, the theme for this year is ‘Tourist Guides; Our Guardians in Promoting and Encouraging Green Tourism’.

Sharing details about this year’s theme, the organisation said in a statement, ‘We believe that Tourist Guides are in the unique position to act as the green guardians in their respective sites and cities creating awareness of both the natural/geographical and man-made environments through their activities to tourists.’