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To increase the active involvement of citizens and locals in the tourism industry for boosting the economy, the Ministry of Tourism (MoT), the Government of Tourism has introduced the Incredible India Tourist Facilitator Certification (IITFC) program. This program will enable citizens to develop and enhance their skills associated with respect to the tourism industry, and they will also get in-depth knowledge of serving tourists across the country.
If you are interested to enrol on this certification program and searching for information related to the IITFC course, then just keep scrolling this page because, this article, will provide all the details of the types of Incredible India Tourists Facility Certification (IITFC) Program.
The online learning management program is managed by the Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (IITTM), which provides interactive content, as well as that, are responsible for conducting course end examination.
Along with Basic course certification, there is also an advanced program in certain fields like heritage and adventure tourism. A refresher course is also offered to those who have already completed the basics or advanced one and a linguistic certification is there for languages like French, German etc. We will discuss each of the types in detail:-
Basic Certification Program
As we all start anything from basics similarly IITFC offers a fundamental and elementary course that covers everything that a tourist facilitator need to know. The curricular is divided into 7 modules and 23 units in which the first six modules cover 20 units under which history, communication, etc are discussed and the 7th module is a destination-specific one with 32 modules having 3 units each i.e. 96 units. Students need to complete any one state/UT from a total of 37 (28 states + 9 UT).
Eligibility for Basic Course
- •The aspirant must have attained the minimum age of 18 years as on the date of registration to this course on the portal by the candidate.
- • The candidates below the age of 40 years should have completed 10+2 or equivalent examination whereas, the candidates of 40 years of age and above should have completed 10th or equivalent examination conducted by any recognised Board or Government of India/State Government on or before the date of registration to the course.
- • He/she may register himself/herself by uploading all the required documents on the IITFC website/portal like aadhar card, caste certificate, domicile certificate etc.
Objectives of IITFC Basic Course
- •The aim of IITFC program is to reach potential audiences from each and every corner of the world.
- • This initiative will enhance the experience for tourists, as this initiative will address the issue of shortage of tourist guides and it will provide a lot of competition that will further ensure in providing the best tourist facilitators.
- • It aims for transforming a local citizen with no extraordinary skills but having proficiency in a regional/local language into a potential bread earner for their households.
- • This online program will have many benefits such as creation of employment for the local people, provide local authentic experience and traditional knowledge on tourist destinations and will be accompanied by the involvement of local people of any age or any place.
- This program will change the concept of tourist guides, and they will be replaced by tourist facilitators from across the country.
After Completion
- After qualifying the examination, training, internship, documents and police verification the candidates will be awarded with “INCREDIBLE INDIA TOURIST FACILITATOR BASIC CERTIFICATE”.
- A unique I’d is generated along with Incredible India Badge – 1 (Basic) is issued by the Ministry of Tourism (MoT), Govt. of India.
- All the certificate badge holders are eligible to be listed on Incredible India website, where a database of certificate tourist facilitator would be maintained by MoT, Govt. of India.
- This exclusive database would be available for use by all the interested stakeholders.
- Owner of this certificate can start their own business, or work for any travel agency/tour operators. There is also a scope for them to work in Govt. of India initiative or projects.
Advanced Certification Course
Once completing basic modules and qualifying basic course end assessment a candidate becomes eligible for the advanced course. As Basic modules were covering the fundamentals of tourism and the tourism industry, this certification course will deal in a segment specialization. By completing any one of the categories as per their interest candidates become masters of the respective category. The whole schema will remain the same as of basic course i.e. completing the different modules at per own pace and time and giving module assessments.
The advance category of tourist facilitator would be of two types to start with-
Advance category (Heritage)
Heritage tourism is broadly defined as travelling to experience the places, artefacts and activities that authentically represent the stories and people of the past and can include cultural, historic and natural resources. India is the perfect amalgamation of religions, customs, languages, and traditions and is reflected in its opulent heritage.
The country is a treasure trove of art, philosophy, architecture, classical dances, flora, fauna, music and much more making it a destination ideal for heritage tourism. This category of tourist facilitators would be having specialised knowledge in the field of history, culture & heritage. The tourist facilitators under this category can be permitted/allowed entry into the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) protected monuments in consultation with ASI. Along with this, the facilitators would also be taught the history of the world and its influences on Indian societies.
Advance category (Adventure)
Adventure tourism includes a wide range of outdoor and physical activities. Adventure tourists engage in activities that are physically challenging and sometimes dangerous, or perceived to be so. Examples are sports such as trekking, mountaineering, white-water rafting and scuba diving. India, being a place of diverse terrain with mountains, rocks, forests, beaches, deserts and rivers, offers much scope for adventure tourism, making it more exciting for adventure seekers.
This category of tourist facilitators would be having specialised knowledge in the field of adventure tourism activities along with good interpersonal communication skills, critical thinking, planning and organizational skills. The tourist facilitators under this category must be adventurous, confident and passionate. Candidates are also exposed to practice situations, emergencies to test their decision-making skills and ability to meet out the issues calmly.
Eligibility
- •For enrolling or registering, a candidate must have completed their basic certification by qualifying course end assessment.
- •Must hold the valid basic category certificate on the date of applying for advanced category.
- •There is neither age barrier not a barrier of educational qualification, as because candidates must have fulfilled the criteria for applying in basic category.
- •Candidates also need to upload their documents again until and unless instructed by Ministry of Tourism, Government of India.
- •Aspirants of Advanced category just need to visit the official website of IITFC i.e. https://iitf.gov.in/ and get themselves registered in the same category by giving some nominal details like certificate number of Basic course etc.
After Completion
- For sitting in course end examination, candidates need to get OCC (Online course completion) certificate whose validity is 3 years. And can sit in examination until they qualify it by scoring a minimum 50% marks.
- Once after completion of all the above formalities i.e. qualifying the examination, internship, behaviour skill training, document verification and police verification, the candidates will be awarded with IITF Advanced certificate.
- The certificate would be a unique ID along with “Incredible India Badge – 2 (Advanced)” issued by Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India.
- All certified badge holders would be listed on Incredible India website where a database of certified Tourist Facilitator would be maintained by Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India. This would be available for use by all interested stakeholders.
Refresher Course
- Before completion of five years’ validation period, a Tourist Facilitator has to undergo mandatory two weeks’ online refresher course to be conducted by IITTM.
- It is a mandatory for IITFC – Basic and Advanced category candidates to get them registered for refresher programme. The candidate may get themselves get registered for refresher courses well before four months of expiry of five years’ validity period.
- There would be no registration fee for undergoing refresher course. They will have to get themselves registered using their existing and valid IITF Certificate and Aadhaar card number given by UIDAI or Voter ID card issued by Election Commission of India and their valid mobile number for verification.
- Once the candidate completed their online refresher course, certified by Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India, the existing Certificate and badge would be renewed by Ministry of Tourism (MoT), Govt. of India for a period of further five years.
Eligibility
- Only the candidates who have completed either basic or advance course are eligible for refresher category certification.
- Candidates need not to upload any additional documents nor additional fee for registering themself. They just have to make registration by visiting website of IITFC.
After Completion
Once the candidate undergoes the refresher course where the main emphasis is on to:-
- Aware aspirants about the new trends in tourism and skills required to meet them.
- Sensitize for art, culture, iconography and architecture of the country
- Unfold the behaviour of “New age Tourists”, and
- Introduce the socio-ecological form of tourism and promote sustainability practices.
Candidate becomes ready to find their place and compete in the dynamic tourism industry by updating themselves.
Linguist
- The spoken language is an optional specialization programme, which a candidate may opt for after completion of IITF (Basic) and/ or IITF (Advanced) certification. Any IITF (Basic) and/or IITF (Advanced) category certificate holder having fluency in spoken foreign language (other than English) is eligible for registration.
- A candidate can also opt for language specialization in more than one language like French, German, Chinese etc. as per their interest.
- The applicant is only required to upload their Basic / Advance certificate at the time of registration for the language specialization.
- Examination for spoken languages would be held in various identified local spoken language. Each candidate is required to secure a minimum passing/qualifying marks i.e. 50% in the spoken test. Candidates can appear any number of times for an examination.
- In case a candidate fails to secure minimum qualifying marks in the first attempt, they would be entitled to attempt the end-of-programme exam again till the validity of their OCC certificate on payment of examination fees (if applicable).
After Completion
- The spoken language certification would be specified on the “Incredible India Badge” issued by MoT, Govt. of India after successful completion of course.
- This optional course comes with many benefits with it will open work opportunities not only in India but also in abroad. And will also be able to enhance their own skills.
- A facilitator may interact with certain group of tourists whose language is not common in India and give a true glimpse of the country.
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