Egypt begins language exams for tour guides to expand linguistic accreditations - Tourism

Al-Ahram Weekly

6 days ago

Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has launched a new round of language exams for licensed tour guides, allowing them to add one or more foreign languages—including rare ones—to their professional licenses.
The move aims to improve multilingual tourism services, diversify visitor markets, and reduce reliance on translation permits granted to foreign interpreters.
As of 2025, Egypt has around 14,000 licensed tour guides, according to an official from the Egyptian General Tourist Guide Syndicate.
The ministry announced Monday that licensed guides can now apply for the language addition tests via the Central Administration of Corporate Services Portal, with applications open through 31 July 2025.
Exams will be held at the Faculty of Tourism and Hotels at Helwan University, where candidates will be evaluated by university professors and representatives from foreign embassies to ensure language proficiency before accreditations are granted.
According to the ministry, 225 applications were received for this round, and 58 candidates passed. Successful guides were certified in a range of languages, including Portuguese, Turkish, Japanese, Czech, Indonesian, Korean, Greek, Romanian, and Hungarian—languages still underrepresented in Egypt's tourism workforce.
The ministry is also running intensive training programmes for aspiring tour guides with relevant academic backgrounds. More than 300 individuals received training in the first half of 2025 alone.
The initiative is part of Egypt's broader strategy to grow its tourism sector and expand its capacity to serve an increasingly diverse global audience. The government aims to attract 30 million visitors annually by 2028 under a comprehensive national tourism strategy.
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