Speech by Mr. Joseph Kipsanai, Chairman, Catering And Tourism Development Levy Trustees board at the launch of the Tour Guides Standardization And Harmonization Project on 20th July, 2005 at Utalii hotel.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry Of Tourism & Wildlife, Ms. Rebecca Nabutola, senior Ministry officials, chief executives of Parastatals, principal, Kenya Utalii college, stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality industry, invited guests, participants, ladies and gentlemen.

On behalf of trustees, management and staff of Catering and Tourism Development Levy Trustees, and on my own behalf, I wish to thank all of you most sincerely for having taken time off your schedules to attend and participate in today's function.

As you are aware, one of the mandates of Catering and Tourism Development Levy Trustees is to establish and develop national standards for testing the skills required in the tourism industry. It is in this regard that the trustees have embarked on the project of harmonizing curricula used by institutions training for the industry.

The trustees recognize that our tour guides play an important role in the industry as they are in constant touch with the tourists from the time they arrive in the country until they leave.

Tour guiding is thus heart and soul of tourism. The prominence of tour guiding can therefore not be understated. It is for this reason that we have started with tour guiding as a first step in the harmonization.

As we start this noble project, I wish to thank our parent ministry for gazetting regulations that have made this project possible. We are also grateful to the ministry for appointing the academic committee, which is the driving force of this project. I also wish to thank the members of the steering committee for accepting to steer this project, their commitment since the start of the project and wish them success in this noble course.

I must also recognize the constant help that we have received from the tourism trust fund both logistically and financially. We are particularly grateful to tourism trust fund for co-funding this project with CTDLT on a 50% 50% basis.

As you take your time during the three days at Utalii hotel, remember that your deliberations will go along way towards improving this sector and the economy of out beloved country.

To make the end result of this project more consultative, the trustees will in future organize meetings in Mombassa, Nakuru, Nyeri and Kisumu so as to encompass the views of other stakeholders into the final product.

As I conclude, I would like to thank the management and staff Utalii hotel for hosting us at this wonderful place. We hope that this meeting will be fruitful and your deliberations will go a long way towards developing a curriculum for tour guides.