Sabah tourist guides must not allow their principles to be
compromised, Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi
Manjun said.
Have trust in your own abilities, love your
profession, love yourself and be proud to be a tour guide as it is an
honorable profession, he said at the Sabah Tourist Guides Association
(STGA) Appreciation Night for its members and industry players here on
Saturday night.
“You should never allow yourself to compromise
your principles because what you do and what you don’t do really
describes who you are in that profession,” Masidi stressed.
“So in
the issue of licensing foreign tour guides, I did not hesitate but to
go along with your stand simply because I think Sabah is too valuable
for us to take the risk to allow everyone to take part in the industry
lest they make a mess of the industry.
“To me, I don’t mind doing
it slightly slower but we do it right rather than going full throttle
only ending up in a crash that in the end we will realize that perhaps,
we have made the wrong decision,” he said.
Masidi said tourist
guides must see their profession as guardians of Sabah as they are
holding the trust on behalf of the people to look after the best of what
nature has given to them.
