Welcome speech to the participants of the Train the Trainer Course, Cyprus 16 to 30 Nov 2025

By Viola Lewis, WFTGA ExBo Member, Head of Training

Dear Colleagues, dear esteemed guests, dear supporters and sponsors,

Deputy Ministry of Tourism, University of Cyprus, Cyprus Tourist Guides Association

dear Titina Loizidou WFTGA President Emeritus,

It is an honour and pleasure to be part of this opening ceremony of the 2025 WFTGA Train the Trainer (TtT) Course at the Cyprus International Training Centre (ITC). I wish I could be with you in person. The same is true for the WFTGA President Sebastian Frankenberger, who asked me to convey his best wishes to all involved in bringing this course to fruition.

Seeing this dedicated group of professional tourist guides coming together to share experiences, refresh timeless universal guiding skills and to upgrade to become trainers of tourist guides makes it all worthwhile. This is why WFTGA exists – a professional network of tourist guides for tourist guides. … but we cannot do it alone.

We are extremely fortunate to have committed supporters and generous sponsors – in the Deputy Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Cyprus, the Leventis Foundation, the Androus Foundation and very importantly the Cyprus Tourist Guide Association, a founding member of WFTGA. I’m immensely grateful for your support and funding over the last almost 20 years.

This course we are opening here today is a dying breed. This may well be the last time that we are able to run the WFTGA Train the Trainer Course in this format – as an intensive, residential, in-person, on-site training course with individual skills coaching at its core. Despite of the local funding which enables us to cover some of the costs incurred in Cyprus, less and less participants are able to pay the course fees. Less and less participants are ready to miss out on 14 days guiding work and income to travel to an in-person course – as became evident when we had to cancel the International TtT usually running in parallel with the TtT Course. There is no low season in tourism anymore. Our profession is under enormous pressure.

Therefore, I would like to express my huge gratitude to our 13 participants of the 2025 Train the Trainer Course, who made it happen – who share our vision in quality skills training, which will equip our profession with tools and mindset to survive and thrive.

Look at them: Our participants this year have come from China / Qatar, Egypt, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Poland, Slovenia, United Arab Emirates. Our trainers are from Iran and Cyprus – testament that the WFTGA global family is alive and well, even in these challenging and turbulent times.

Lastly, I would like to thank Marina Cocconi, the Co-ordinator of the Cyprus ITC, who almost single-handedly made all local arrangements. Less and less people are prepared to volunteer their services. I can remember when I started my term is Head of Training in 2019, there was a Committee with different tasks and roles, all now ably performed by Marina. 

Now, it falls to me to wish my trainer colleagues – Banafsheh Farahani and Georgia Constanti – all the very best for the task in hand, to lead the course and to inspire the next generation of Trainers of Tourist Guides. The next 2 weeks will be an intensive immersion of experiential learning – many previous participants say it was an unforgettable experience where new friendships are forged within the WFTGA family.

Enjoy every minute of it – share, grow, experiment within a supportive team in the beautiful surroundings of Nicosia and Cyprus. Last, but not least, savour and relish the Cyprus hospitality.

All the very best to each and every one of you.

I’m now going to meet another WFTGA President Emeritus, the first ever Head of Training, to talk about a new strategy for WFTGA Training – you are an integral part of it.

Thank you!