Relaxed qualification requirements for tour guide licenses led to a record 50,000-plus applicants sitting this year's tour guide exam, held nationwide at 13 venues on Saturday and yesterday.
The exam is categorized as a civil service exam.
Unlike previous years, where applicants needed a college diploma or to have graduated from high-school with at least one year of experience in the travel industry, this year the candidates could apply for the test so long as they had a high school diploma.
At the National Examination Center, people aged 20 to 60 sat for the Tour Guide Exam.
The questions ranged from how tour guides should react when a Taiwanese tour group is attacked by armed robbers in Brazil, how early should a tour group arrive at the airport, how to arrange forks and knives, to how long a Chinese tour group is allowed to stay in Taiwan.
Many applicants were university students hoping to get a tour guide license to help them land a job upon graduation.
"Competition is tough. Only 10 to 30 percent can pass the exam," said Lin Yu-chieh, 23, a university student.
"I spent three months preparing for this exam. If I can get the tour guide license, it will be my iron rice bowl," she said, referring to a Chinese euphemism for a guaranteed job.
Unlike previous years, where people applied for English or Japanese-language tour licenses, which would allow them to accompany groups abroad, this year's exam saw a surge in the number of applicants in the Mandarin-speaking category.
People in the travel industry attributed this growth to the government's plan to soon allow 1,000 Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan every day. Taipei is also in discussions with Beijing on opening charter flights so that Chinese tourists could fly directly to Taiwan.
Tour Guide Association director Lin Ten-chan (
Additional reporting by DPA
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