Friday, March 29, 2024 | Ramadan 18, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

A guide for guides

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If the epitome of three words, travel, love and passion can be summed up, the result will be Wisal al Rashdi, an ambitious Omani travel guide who keeps motivating people to love travelling and guiding others.


Simply put, she became a guide because she loves travelling and exploring other cultures. A determinant hardworking, outgoing, social and very flexible Omani youth.


“I want people who come to Oman to have great experiences in my country and to love and appreciate its beautiful scenery, people and culture,’’, says Wisal, a certified general guide in Oman.


According to the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, there are 27 female tour guides in the country specialised in various languages and the ministry has licensed 14 Omani females just last year.


“I want to tell my fellow women out there who complain about mundane office chores to transform your passion into your profession so that you’ll never get fed up of work’’, Wisal, who works at the British Council during the week and guides visitors in Oman on weekends.


With the aim to inspire and motivate local women, she has started her webpage a few months ago as an online initiative, which is supported by the “women in tourism movement” at Oman College of Tourism. “This is to encourage more people to join the tourism industry as guides but to specifically encourage women. I ran a series of talks online on Zoom to make an attempt towards this’’, says Wisal.


Wisal says that we don’t have enough female guides in the industry and we need to see more women in the field of guiding whether it is general guiding like me or adventure guiding.


All the females I featured never told their stories before, so it was new for people to see females talk about their personal journeys in tourism online. I also covered two topics that were discussed for the first time like. “A Guide for Guides which was a talk aimed at giving guides tips on guiding and explaining to them how to become a certified guide’’, adds she.


She opines that by openly featuring their stories and discussing topics of different interests in the hope that it will inspire them to join.


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