Registration is still open for the interested candidates
by Suman Gupta
May, 2021, Mumbai: In February 2021,The Directorate of Tourism (DoT), Government of Maharashtra had announced an ‘Online IITF (Incredible India Tourist Facilitator) Certification Programme (Guide Training)’ designed by the Ministry of Tourism (MoT), Government of India (GoI) for the citizens of India. More than 200 registrations were received from Maharashtra for the online programme because of the successful promotional campaign carried out by DoT. The registration is still open for the online programme for the interested candidates, who want to pursue career as trained tour guides.
The ‘Online IITF Tourism Facilitator Certification Programme (Guide Training)’ is an initiative for the candidates who are looking to become part of the bourgeoning tourism industry to serve as high quality tour guides at the State level.
On the http://iitf.gov.inportal, the basic online course is available in Hindi and English with seven modules of various tourism aspects. The overall programme fee is Rs 2000, while the examination fee is Rs 500. In order to encourage more and more candidates to pursue the course, The Directorate of Tourism (DoT) has decided to refund the programme fee of Rs 2000 to first 1000 candidates, who successfully complete all the modules of the IITF tourism facilitator programme.
The eligibility criterion for the programme is as follows: Candidates between the age group of 18-40 should pass minimum 12th grade. And, the candidate aged above 40 years should have passed minimum 10th grade.
Candidates will be awarded an Online Course Completion Certificate (OCC) once they successfully complete all the seven online modules of the programme, after which the candidate will be eligible to apply for the exam.
Post the exam, the candidates will have to attend 7-day behavior skill training conducted by IITTM (Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management). Furthermore, the IITF Basic Certificate would be awarded to the candidates who successfully undertake the mandatory internship of seven working days with tour operators approved by Ministry of Tourism, GoI.
According to the procedure, one day assessment training will be conducted by the Directorate of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra for the selected candidates and following this assessment the final certification will be awarded stating, Maharashtra Tourism Certification/ licensed by Directorate of Tourism (DoT), Government of Maharashtra.
The successful candidates will be allowed to give guide services anywhere in Maharashtra as a Maharashtra Tourism Certified/licensed guide except at Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) monuments.
