News from Barbara Dimas, Area Representative (North America, Caribbean, Oceania):
“I was contacted by Fran Cane and Sofi Lidgren of the Institute of Australian Tour Guides (IATG) to present at their Annual General Meeting on August 18, 2026 6pm Sydney time. After some discussion, it was agreed that I would record my presentation just in case we had technical difficulties as I would be attending online via Zoom. They were interested to find out what was new in tour guiding with the WFTGA. I altered the slide deck that Shubham provided to give just a general introduction to the WFTGA for the IATG members. I got online at 12am PDT to test my presentation with Fran and it worked seamlessly. Unfortunately, when it was time to present at 1am PDT the link no longer worked. Nevertheless, I was still able to briefly speak to the membership, promoting the Global Networking Forum on October 14 (15th Sydney time) as well as the 2028 WFTGA Convention in Peru.
It had been decided beforehand that there would be no Q&A at this meeting, but I was invited to their September 8 meeting where I could field questions from their membership. Fran Cane said that they had a successful meeting and ‘The members really want to make most of WFTGA.’
At the follow up meeting on September 8, 2026, Fran Cane and Sofi Lidgren introduced me and I opened by encouraging members to attend the GNF October 15 10am Sydney time to discuss Fair Pay. They asked me about pay in San Francisco, in Sydney they said it is 50 AUD per hour for 3 to 4 hour tours.
Other topics that were discussed:
Team Africa working on an AI Toolkit – they were very interested and I told them I would give them updates.
Newsletter – Fran asked me to write an article about WFTGA for their upcoming newsletter.
Cultour Card – Angela Turek – former Area Rep – talked about WFTGA advantages like the Conference and the Cultour card, which she has used in Paris and London. Fran said the last time they received a packet, the cards were all expiring. They would like to know how to get the digital Cultour Card.
Constitution and delegates – we discussed the Constitution which is being revised from one delegate per country to one vote per delegate per association – Veronique wanted to know how they would choose a delegate – Fran said that they would discuss that in committee. Angela Turek didn’t think that Australia had a delegate.
They are very interested in maintaining a closer tie to the WFTGA
I left the meeting at 1am my time/6pm Sydney time.”
Thank you for this thorough and interesting report. We appreciate Area Representatives taking the time to speak to member associations and to write up their reports!