Τη σφοδρή αντίδραση αρκετών Ελλήνων πανεπιστημιακών προκάλεσε επιστολή του Kevin W.Arawjo, προέδρου και CEO της αμερικανικής εταιρείας ArawjoTours, LLC, προς το Υπουργείο Τουρισμού, αλλά και στους φορείς των Ελλήνων ξεναγών, ζητώντας τους να τον καθησυχάσουν όσον αφορά στο επίπεδο των ξεναγών στη χώρα μας.
Ύστερα από την άμεση αντίδραση τόσο των Ελλήνων ξεναγών όσο και ακαδημαϊκών σε τμήματα Τουρισμού των ελληνικών πανεπιστημίων, ο κ. Kevin W.Arawjo, πρόεδρος και CEO της αμερικανικής εταιρείας ArawjoTours, LLC, ο οποίος είχε αποστείλει επιστολή στο Υπουργείο Τουρισμού και στους φορείς των Ελλήνων ξεναγών, ανησυχώντας για το επίπεδο των ξεναγών στη χώρα μας, προχώρησε σε “αναδίπλωση” των θέσεών του και ανάκληση της συγκεκριμένης επιστολής.
Ακολουθεί η επιστολή των Ελλήνων πανεπιστημιακών (Μαλαματένιας Σκαλτσά – Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης, Πάρη Τσάρτα – Πανεπιστήμιο Αιγαίου, Δημήτριου Λαγού – Πανεπιστήμιο Αιγαίου, Γρηγορίου Ψαλίδα – Ιόνιο Πανεπιστήμιο και Πάνου Βαλαβανή – Εθνικό & Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών) προς τον κ. Arawjo και η απάντησή του.
“Thessaloniki, Greece, 25-7-2014
Dear Mr. Kevin W. Arawjo,
Recently we read an article by Ms. Tatiana Rokou dated 9th July 2014, in the online newspaper TravelDailyNews.gr, in which she refers to a letter of yours where you slander public universities in Greece, some of which happen to be the largest and most historic Greek universities: the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, which is the first Greek University, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, which is the largest university in the country, and the more recently established Aegean and Ionian universities, all of which have undertaken the educational training of tourist guides who have graduated after four-year university courses.
Your statement, quoted by Ms Rokou, that “the low level of tourist guides that any university provides cannot reach the level of official guides” is derogatory regarding the above mentioned universities and false because it in no way accords with reality. We therefore ask you to retract your statement in a letter to the Greek Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Education, as well as to the Rectorates of each university, otherwise we shall seek moral compensation.
For your information, the intensive tourist guide courses that are conducted by the universities in question, exclusively train graduates of History & Archaeology, History of Art, History and Social Anthropology University Departments, after 4-year university degree courses. Because the selection is based on credits and the number of candidates is ten times the number of those selected, many of these graduates, official guides themselves after their graduation, not only have certificates in more than one foreign language, but also possess masters degrees after two year courses, and often a PhD title. Consequently, these graduates are trained as tourist guides in experiential methods of communication and in what contemporary tourist guide language terms “interpretation”, having already completed at least two more years of studies (four if they have a post-graduate title and ten if they have a PhD) compared with guides that have graduated from the old Tourist Guide Schools, where the courses lasted two to two and a half years, and from this year just one and a half years, during which they try to cover four years’ teaching material, and outside an academic research environment, which is the university. Furthermore, none of the graduates of the intensive courses is a Secondary Education graduate, as opposed to many of the guides from the Tourist Guide Schools.
Moreover, we must inform you that our graduates, with the contemporary tourist guide methods they have acquired from these new courses of the above universities, are snapped up the tourist industry, which of course doesn’t limit itself to the well-beaten path, but rather seeks new, cutting edge, alternative and experiential tourist guide methods. We propose that you contact them – we are willing to help you in this – in order to see for yourself the difference in approach. We would also propose that you approach the graduates of tourist guide schools so that they may attend one of the courses that we run at the universities, so that they themselves will benefit from the contemporary advances in approaches and also from the methods of cultural interpretation that we teach.
Having furnished you with the above information, we ask you to send us and the institutions mentioned above the soonest a letter retracting your comments, which blatantly slander the highest level of education that we and our academic colleagues provide. We are sure that you are misinformed and we would not like to enter a procedure of seeking moral compensation.
Yours sincerely,
- Malamatenia Scaltsa, professor of History of Art and Museology, associate chairwoman of the School of Architecture, course director, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
- Paris Tsartas, professor of Tourism Development, Dean of the University of the Aegean
- Dimitrios Lagos, professor of Tourism Economics, course director, University of the Aegean
- Grigorios Psalidas, associate professor of History, chairman of the School of History, course director, Ionian University
- Panos Valavanis, professor of Archaeology, Chairman of the School of History and Archaeology, Course Director, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens”.
Greek Guides Letter Retraction
Η Τατιάνα ελέγχει καθημερινά τη ροή των εισερχόμενων ειδήσεων και επιμελείται την ύλη που δημοσιεύεται στο δίκτυο των TravelDailyNews.
