Cam Hien, a female tour guide, always chooses ao dai when guiding tourists
Making an impression from gentleness and elegance
Over the years, the tour guide Cam Hien has not only made a strong impression on various tourist delegations coming to Hue with her professionalism and dedication but also with her “very Hue-styled” charm, with the long black hair, the conical hat, and the graceful traditional ao dai.
Cam Hien informed that most of the visiting programs in Hue are associated with monuments, royal mausoleums, pagodas, etc. In those contexts, ao dai is the most suitable outfit for everybody, including tour guides. Choosing ao dai also creates friendliness for visitors during their visits and their experiences of tourism activities. That is the unique and “very Hue-styled” image that nowhere can make the same.
Not only the tour guide Cam Hien but also many other female tour guides choose ao dai as their outfits when doing their job of guiding and serving tourists. It has made many tourists’ hearts be under the charm.
Many female tour guides confided that they also have a huge love for and feel proud of the traditional ao dai. Whenever wearing it, no matter where they are and in any situation, ao dai always shows the essential courteousness, and elegance, at the same time enhances the beauty of Vietnamese women, which is both discreet, softly, charming and attractive.
“Our ancestors said ‘Being watchful over the mind with the familiars, Being the same on clothes with the strangers”. Tourists are those coming from far away. Therefore, the first one they meet is the tour guide, and the tour guide dressing politely; with the female wears ao dai and male dresses shirt with a tie on will make a good impression on tourists. On the contrary, proper is not in what they wear, the first impression will not be fine.
Members of the Provincial Association of Tour Guides said that tourists are often surprised and delighted by the welcome of a “Hue-styled” tour guide. As for those wearing purple ao dai, tourists can feel the very “Hue style” and are satisfied with the closeness and solemnity of the initial welcome” shared Mr. Tran Huu Cuu, Chairman of the Provincial Association of Tour Guides.
For that reason, the Provincial Association of Tour Guides is implementing the plan of building up the image of the professional tour guide by encouraging members to dress politely when guiding tours with an aim at creating beautiful images of Hue people, and of the Capital land, which is rich in culture and hospitality.
Need a Schedule
According to the initial plan of the Provincial Association of Tour Guides, female tour guides will be encouraged to wear ao dai; while the male ones, shirts with tie on it. If it can be done, it does not only well-serve for the work of each tour guide but also be a pioneer in building the image of the professional tour guide team in the whole country, which is likely to be a unique and novel tourism product for the Ancient Capital’s tourism based on these distinctive features.
However, many tour guides said that this uniform regulation will be not easy to carry out due to various reasons. First of all, the work of a tour guide always requires comfort, dynamism, and avoiding entanglement. Hence, the outfit that is often chosen by the tour guides is T shirts, jeans, and sneakers. Choosing which outfit is the most suitable, showing the most distinctive characteristics is also a confusing factor.
It will not be so hard with female tour guides, because ao dai is the most suitable one; However, with male tour guides, it needs the more careful discussion about what they will wear. Another reason is that many travel agencies have their own tour guide’s outfit; the unification between the general and specific has not been found out yet. Also, the factor of Hue weather, with the scorching summer and heavily-raining winter also makes a lot of impact on what to wear.
Nguyen Dinh Quyen, a tour guide from the Fiditour Travel Agency – Hue branch commented that the tour guides advocate for the idea, however, it needs a plan and schedule for the implementation. According to this tour guide, based on the working nature of each tourist delegation, the idea of uniform regulation should be carried out with those guests just visiting the destinations; or with the city tours. The typical tours such as MICE tour, with tourists attending conferences combining with visiting are also able to apply this requirement. It should be expanded to the tour guides going throughout the trips after achieving good results.
Mr. Nguyen Van Phuc, Director of the Tourism Department informed that, over time, each tour guide has been considered a “tourism ambassador”. Therefore, building up the image of a tour guide team with distinctive features will be a solution to promote Hue culture in tourism activities. That is why each tour guide needs to keep on improving their professional capacity, with politeness in manners and decent dressing during the working time, etc. It will raise the ability on promoting the image of Hue tourism in particular and Vietnam in general; contributing to the construction of a friendly, quality and professional destination, especially in the period of the regular recovery to normal of the tourism.
Story and photo: Duc Quang