VietNamNet Bridge - Ninety-three people from the Republic of Korea have passed a course on Vietnam held by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) and the International Centre for English and Education.

This is the first ever training course, which lasted for 15 days, for Korean native speakers.

Learners were later granted certificates to work as Korean-language tour guides, helping ease the shortage of Korean-language tourist guides and reduce the number of illegal guides.

According to the VNAT, about 40,000-50,000 tourists from the Republic of Korea visit Vietnam a year. However, there were just 30 Korean-language tourist guides.

In 2007, VNAT inspectors fined and expelled 40 illegal tourist guides, including 16 from the Republic of Korea.

(Source: VNA)