Kosovo still without licensed tour guide or guide

Kosovo has no licensed tour guide or guide. This is a concern for distorting facts, different interpretations of local traditions and cultures. So said Baki Hoti, chairman of the Kosovo Tourism Union, who considers that as soon as possible, institutions should make the license of guides who are trained by various international organisations.

We have had a meeting with relevant institutions and expressed it as a concern and urgently demanded that the team and commission make the drafting of these policies and the licensing of the guide. We have persons who are trained by different international organisations, but are not licensed by institutions. It is required as soon as possible in order that every coming group will be able to take these tours into the ministry and not bring guidelines from their countries when it is known that they then interpret history, culture as they want”, he said.

The chairman of the Tourism Association in Kosovo, Ruzhdzi Kurtishaj, also said that the circuses coming from other states cannot interpret Kosovo's history as it is. He said there have been cases when Ciceros from Macedonia and Serbia have interpreted Kosovo's history differently. Kosovo has not yet been licensed guidelines which would have been required for tourists coming to Kosovo to explain the history of Kosovo's cultural heritage, but this is often done by Macedonia or Serbia's guide or even from other countries. Therefore, caution is needed because it distorts the history of the country and also the religion. We know that the churches in Prizren have been the Albanian Catholic, Serbian and Macedonian churchmen say they are the Serb churches. That's actually not true”, he says.

Other countries have legalized guide work. In Albania, when a foreign national will exercise the profession of tourist guide, in addition to meeting the criteria set by law, it should also be resident, for no less than a year, and have basic Albanian language knowledge.