Systems approach to design and development of a tourist guide training program: a case study of Sharjah tourism

This study is a scientific synthesis of developing and conducting a tourist guide training program focused on destination – Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. The Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA), a wing of the government of Sharjah, in pursuance of the target of attracting ten million tourists to the Emirate by 2021, has undertaken several promotional and developmental projects. One of the projects under such a pursuit is to design an effective tour guide training program and issuing licenses to successful candidates helping them in the process, to carve out a gainful career for themselves. Adopting a systems approach and grounding it on stakeholder theory the study is divided into six phases starting from benchmarking the tour guide training programs in the region as the first phase and ending it with the conduct and evaluation. The study establishes a systematic approach to develop a tour guide training cum licensing program taking into consideration a variety of factors and adding another dimension to the stakeholder theory. The process of designing a vocational training program established in the study should prove useful for tourism businesses bothered with training needs.