WFTA: Online Culinary Certification for Professional Tourist Guides

The World Food Travel Association (WFTA), a leading authority on food and beverage tourism, and the European Federation of Tourist Guide Associations (FEG) recently signed an agreement to offer the world’s first online, comprehensive Culinary Tourist Guide Certification training programme.

“This is an important turning point in the world’s food/culinary/gastronomy tourism industry,” WFTA Executive Director Erik Wolf said, adding that there has been a tremendous growth in food tours around the world.

The Culinary Tourist Guide Certification training programme is a short course designed to deliver highly specific content at the participant’s own pace. It is offered exclusively to the FEG’s association members and affiliates.

“What has been lacking so far is the professionalism needed to help travelers get the most out of a destination and its culinary culture,” he added.

The training programme takes approximately three hours to complete and includes two online Masterclasses with knowledge comprehension exams, followed by an open question assessment. At the end of the training, those tourist guides who pass are certified that they know how to design and conduct a high-quality and professional culinary tour. Tourist guides who graduate receive a printable diploma, lapel pin and marketing support.

“We have all been guiding in our own areas of qualification on gastronomy tours, wine tasting, traditional food markets and taking our guests to cooking classes, but so far with no formal life-long training for our profession in this specialist field. It is a great chance for us all to be trained and assessed by the WFTA and finally become Culinary-Certified Tourist Guides,” FEG Executive Council President Efi Kalampoukidou said.

The training programme is delivered 100 percent online and is custom designed to meet the needs of professional tourist guides. English subtitles make comprehension easier for those whose native language is not English.

“This certification will be of benefit not just to tourist guides, but to travellers as a whole – destinations, tour organisers and of course our domestic and overseas travellers, who will all enjoy enhanced guiding services from us,” Kalampoukidou added.

Photo source: WFTA

The Culinary Tourist Guide Certification training programme is part of the WFTA’s World Food Travel University, which offers a great variety and high quality of food tourism education and training programmes.