Every day around 20 licensed tourist guides are cheated out of work by people leading guided tours illegally, Blanche Leenhouts, president of the Malta Union of Tourist Guides told The Sunday Times in an interview last week.

Ms Leenhouts, whose mother is Maltese, added that in July and August, 20 groups of English language students are taken on a Gozo tour four times a week. Most do not have a licensed guide to lead the tour as stipulated by the Tourist Guides Regulations enacted last May.

Ms Leenhouts' comments come in the wake of the controversy surrounding the case of Junior College lecturer Frank Boffa, who was apprehended by a Malta Tourism Authority enforcement officer outside the Tourist Information Office in Valletta on July 8 while he was explaining the history of the Goddess of Fertility to a group of 25 foreign exchange students.

Mr Boffa was fined Lm500 but the two-month period which allowed him to appeal has lapsed and he now faces court proceedings.

Meanwhile, the Malta Union of Teachers has instructed schools not to organise any educational outings until the issue is resolved.

But the guides' union says English language students and foreign exchange students are tourists who are targeted by MTA marketing campaigns. They belong to a niche market like conference or cultural tourists.

Ms Leenhouts explained that the regulations do not affect teachers leading school outings. The problem, however, lies in the fact that the legislation does not specifically exempt schoolchildren's outings.

"Schoolchildren have never been stopped by enforcement officials. The MUTG is not after local schoolchildren. We are only concerned with protecting the guiding profession," Ms Leenhouts pointed out. "Many guides are parents themselves and they have often guided schoolchildren from private and public schools on a voluntary basis. On International Guides Day, which we have marked in February for the last three years, our union offered free tours of Valletta to schoolchildren. One year we organised tours for 500 schoolchildren."

The MUTG was set up in 1998 and represents 176 guides, around two-thirds of active guides. There are over 550 registered guides in Malta, 148 of whom are not normally active. Ms Leenhouts explained that there are 223 freelance guides who are available full-time, 120 freelance guides who are available part-time, 42 guides employed full-time by various agents, and 24 who have a licence to guide in Gozo only.

Many guides are employed full-time in other sectors because of the seasonality of the languages they guide in. Only 150 earn their living from guiding only; 58 teachers are licensed to guide part-time on weekends and holidays, but 27 are not normally active.

Licensed guides, who wear an MTA identification tag, are able to guide in 26 languages between them.

According to Ms Leenhouts, licensed tourist guides earn between Lm18 and Lm21 (excluding VAT) for a tour of Valletta, which is a UNESCO Heritage Site, a special designated location. Freelance guides do not enjoy guaranteed income, they lose money if they take time off or are sick, and have no bonuses and no unemployment benefit if there is no work for them. Most guides also take out private accident insurance in case they cannot work.

Ms Leenhouts recalled that the MUTG was involved in the negotiations that saw the adoption of the Tourist Guides Regulations which fall under the Malta Travel and Tourism Services Act.

Negotiations started in 1999 and involved the Tourism Minister, his Permanent Secretary, the MIATA (the incoming agents association) and the MUTG.

Ms Leenhouts said that the first time the guides' association put forward its proposals they were ignored, and the MUTG was involved in the negotiations only after its proposals were rewritten by a lawyer. The MUTG met representatives of the MIATA and later Tourism Ministry officials during the lengthy negotiations.

Among the proposals the MUTG had put forward was a suggestion that the regulations would exempt local teachers employed by local schools, except for schools teaching English as a foreign language. Ms Leenhouts explained that this proposal was ignored and was never included in the final regulations.

She added that although the sector has had some form of legislation since 1965, these new regulations aim to protect the profession and are in conformity with EU regulations.

MTA enforcement officers immediately started to act on the regulations when they were published last May.

A minibus company that organised tours for tourists which were not led by a licensed tourist guide was recently fined Lm500. The company paid the fine but the MUTG is aware that the law is still being infringed.

Ms Leenhouts said that language schools and similar organisations have repeatedly received letters from the MTA and the MUTG that taking foreign students on tours without a licensed guide was against the law, but the correspondence has been ignored. She pointed out that there are however a couple of language schools who engage licensed tourist guides.

Ms Leenhouts explained: "When a tour is conducted for language schools, they have free entrance to museums accompanied by local students who are usually the same age as them so they cannot command any respect from the group. It is difficult for museum custodians to have control over these groups."

"Garages and the language schools earn their due from these tours. Licensed guides do not," she added.

"We understand that a trip to the beach or a barbecue is not a tour. But a trip to a museum, prehistoric temples, churches or a historic city is considered an excursion under the law."

Tourist guides undergo rigorous training to obtain their licence, Ms Leenhouts explained. The Institute for Tourism Studies organises a two-year course for guides working in English, French, Italian and German. The Tourism Ministry, and now the MTA, holds intensive crash courses to accommodate urgent requests for guides proficient in non-mainstream languages like Dutch, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Polish and Greek.

A licence is issued on completion of the course. Guides may only have their licence renewed annually if they attend at least half the educational events organised by the MTA and the MUTG throughout the year.

Ms Leenhouts says the Tourism Ministry believes guides have an ambassadorial role as they play an important role in the development of tourism. They are often engaged to show travel journalists and tour operator representatives around the islands in a bid to bring business to our shores.

"Teachers would not like it if I started to teach when I am not guiding. Neither would the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (who have also reacted to the Mr Boffa's case) like it if someone with a large house started to rent out rooms illegally. The MUTG is not saying that a teacher is not qualified to inform foreign students about the Goddess of Fertility. He or she is just not licensed to," she said.