Assessment of the guide course training programme and acquired competences

Gidas yra ekskursijos proceso organizatorius ir vedėjas. Tai asmuo, kuris suteikia turistams informacijos apie lankomus muziejus, galerijas, gamtos, kultūros, mokslo, parodų ar kitus lankytinus objektus ar vietoves. Gido profesija yra labai svarbi, nes nuo jo profesionalumo labai priklauso, kokį įspūdį turistai susidarys apie aplankytą šalį ar miestą. Gidai turi turėti reikiamų gabumų ir žinių. Šių kompetencijų jie įgyja gidų kursuose, kuriuos sudaro 9 dėstomi dalykai. Kursuose įgytas kompetencijas jie pritaiko dirbdami su turistais, o praktika išugdo jų asmenines savybes, kurios, kaip teigia gidai, yra labai svarbios. Raktiniai žodžiai: gidų kursai, gidų kursų rengimo programa, kompetencijos.Relevance. The guide is the organiser and presenter of the excursion process. It is a person who provides tourists with information about the museums, galleries, natural, cultural, scientific exhibitions or other attractions that are visited. The profession of a guide is very important because the professionalism of the guides largely depends on what impression tourists will make about the country or city they visited. Guides must have the necessary talents and knowledge, these competencies are acquired by guides in guide training courses consisting of 9 subjects taught. They apply the competencies acquired in the courses when working with tourists, and practice develops their personal qualities, which, as the guides say, are important. Keywords: guide courses, guide course training program, competencies

Competence development during lifelong learning. The case of front-line employees in Lithuanian tourism sector

The concept of lifelong learning is relevant for business. […] This paper focuses on lifelong learning and competence acquisition and development of front-line employees in tourism sector. The aim of the paper is to define how front-line employees in Lithuanian tourism sector develop competence during lifelong learning. The paper consists of literature analysis on lifelong learning and competence development, empirical research and presentation of findings along with conclusions. The purpose of empirical research is to picture the competencies of employees in Lithuanian tourism information centers (TIC) as well as the learning forms the competencies are acquired by. The qualitative survey, semi-structured interview of seven TIC directors has been conducted in 2009. The survey has identified a number of competencies of frontline employees in tourism sector. It has also disclosed how the competencies are acquired. The findings show that informal learning is considered to be more significant and occurring more often comparing with formal and non-formal learning in Lithuanian tourism sector. Practical implications are revealed by disclosing the competencies significant for front-line employees in tourism sector and the learning forms having the biggest impact in competencies acquisition and development. It enables front-line employees to choose the most effective learning methods and save time and costs. The paper is original in the way empirical research has been conducted. Qualitative research especially in tourism sector is still rare in Lithuania. Also the findings identify the most effective forms of learning of front-line employees in Lithuanian tourism sector

Lietuvos turizmo įmonių darbuotojų pagrindinių kompetencijų nustatymas

Quality of service is one of the sources of competitive advantage in tourism industry as successful interaction between employees and customers influences income and profit. Clients' satisfaction after the first contact, communication, information and gained proposals usually determines where to obtain the trip package, if other conditions are similar and acceptable. This research aims to determine what core competencies are essential for successful guide/tour escort and travel consultants in order completely satisfy the requirements and expectations of tourism services customers This research presents a new approach to a long-term viability of an enterprise as no similar researches were ever carried in Lithuania. The questionnaires were received from 171 customers, thus ensuring statistically reliable sample for further analysis. The answers, processed using SPSS, confirmed that core competencies of guide/tour escort are mostly hidden, while majority of travel consultant's core competencies are visible. Results of the research will be useful for Lithuanian tourism companies, who seek to improve personnel working with customers skills for realizing the better strategy (guarantee the profit) in order to seek the satisfy expectations of customers. As the tourism is the part of the experience economics, the huge essentials in the success take part the customers expectation realization. The research has shown that managers do not recognize expectations of customers. Using the results of this research in nowadays the quality of services will be better, will be no tourists dissatisfactions and tourism companies will find the method how to expand customers' loyalty to agency ensuring safe and financial vitality future

Lietuvos turizmo įmonių darbuotojų pagrindinių kompetencijų nustatymas

Quality of service is one of the sources of competitive advantage in tourism industry as successful interaction between employees and customers influences income and profit. Clients' satisfaction after the first contact, communication, information and gained proposals usually determines where to obtain the trip package, if other conditions are similar and acceptable. This research aims to determine what core competencies are essential for successful guide/tour escort and travel consultants in order completely satisfy the requirements and expectations of tourism services customers This research presents a new approach to a long-term viability of an enterprise as no similar researches were ever carried in Lithuania. The questionnaires were received from 171 customers, thus ensuring statistically reliable sample for further analysis. The answers, processed using SPSS, confirmed that core competencies of guide/tour escort are mostly hidden, while majority of travel consultant's core competencies are visible. Results of the research will be useful for Lithuanian tourism companies, who seek to improve personnel working with customers skills for realizing the better strategy (guarantee the profit) in order to seek the satisfy expectations of customers. As the tourism is the part of the experience economics, the huge essentials in the success take part the customers expectation realization. The research has shown that managers do not recognize expectations of customers. Using the results of this research in nowadays the quality of services will be better, will be no tourists dissatisfactions and tourism companies will find the method how to expand customers' loyalty to agency ensuring safe and financial vitality future

Lietuvos turizmo įmonių veiklos rezultatų vertinimo sistemos įvertinimas

The aim of the research paper is to review systems of activity evaluation used in Lithuanian tourism companies, compare their adequacy and ability to react to the changing environment when improving workers’ results as well as to compare ordinary results and activities with the behaviour-related work. The research paper seeks to define activity evaluation systems currently used in Lithuanian tourism companies. The empiric research defines the condition of the official evaluation process of workers’ results in Lithuanian tourism companies, aspects and methods of activity evaluation, frequency of evaluation, the person performing the evaluation and the impact of evaluation on employees. The collection of data was performed in two stages: a survey via phone and an independently conducted questionnaire survey. The research showed that only several middle-sized tourism agencies have such activity evaluation systems. Respondents’ responses proved the presumption related to the impact of the activity evaluation system on employees’ motivation and results when evaluation results are integrated into the common personnel policy. The main aims of the activity evaluation system in Lithuanian tourism companies is the encouragement of strategical consciousness, improvement of employees, formation of clear future functions and encouragement of a constructive dialogue between employees and their manager. The compound elements of the evaluation system should be used in order to achieve the above aims

Anterprenerystės raiška darnaus turizmo sektoriuje. Lietuvos kelionių organizatorių atvejis

Straipsnio tikslas yra išanalizuoti anterprenerystės fenomeną ir anterprenerystės reikšmę darnaus turizmo verslo vystymui akcentuojant darnaus turizmo verslo augimą Lietuvoje ir galimas anterprenerystės reikšmes šiam verslui. Atliktos literatūros analizės pagrindu pateikiamas anterprenerystės turizme raiškos modelis akcentuojant anterprenerį ir jo savybės dedamąsias. Empirinio tyrimo metu kelionių organizatorių pavyzdžiu yra aiškinamasi, ar Lietuvos turizmo sektoriuje pasireiškia anterpreneriškumas, skatinantis darnaus turizmo vystymą. Atlikto tyrimo rezultatai leidžia daryti išvadą, kad tirtų Lietuvos įmonių, atliekančių kelionių organizatorių funkciją, vadovai pasižymi visomis anterpreneriams būdingomis savybėmis, todėl galima numanyti, kad vadovo kaip anterprenerio buvimas organizacijoje sudaro sąlygas anterprenerystės raiškai toje organizacijoje ir darnaus turizmo vystymui Lietuvoje.In the following article, the main objective is to analyse the phenomenon of the entrepreneurship and its significance for the sustainable business including the business of tourism. Under the basis of the completed analysis of literature, there is presented the manifestation model of entrepreneurship in the sustainable tourism highlighting the entrepreneur and his/her quality constituents. During the empirical research, following the example of tour operators’ case, it is clarified if there is manifested entrepreneurship in the tourism sector. The conclusions of the completed research enable to make the statement that the managers of the researched Lithuanian companies, which carry out the function of tour operators, claim to possess all the qualities characteristic for the entrepreneurs. Thus, it can be understood that the manager’s as entrepreneur’s presence in the organization provides necessary conditions for the manifestation of entrepreneurship in the following organization and sustainable tourism development in Lithuania

Laisvalaikio pagrindai : vadovėlis

Kiti aut. : Aleksandras Alekrinskis, Regina Andriukaitienė, Daiva Bulotienė, Vilija Bitė Fominienė, Kristina Grigaitė, Edmundas Jasinskas, Diana Komskienė, Jūratė Požėrienė, Rimantas Mikalauskas, Regina Navickienė, Daiva Palubinskienė, Birutė Petraitienė, Diana Rėklaitienė, Danutė Rimkevičienė, Audrius Šimkus, Biruta Švagždienė, Dovilė Valančienė, Jolita Vveinhardt, Aurelijus Kazys ZuozaBibliografija : p. 447-450Lietuvos sporto universitetasVadybos katedraVytauto Didžiojo universiteta