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Note No. 5719
12 March 2002
Note to
Correspondents
NEW
GUIDES JOIN TOUR OPERATION AT UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS
Guided
Tours to Celebrate Its Fiftieth Anniversary in November
A new
group of 22 multilingual tour guides joined the staff of the
Department of Public Information at United Nations Headquarters
this week. The new guides supplement the existing team of
guides who conduct tours for the nearly half a million visitors
who are attracted to this popular tourist destination each
year. By November, which marks the fiftieth anniversary of
the guided tour operation, over 38 million visitors will have
taken a guided tour of United Nations Headquarters.
The Department
of Public Information has a multifaceted agenda for observing
the anniversary that will include some individual events,
month-long programmes and long-term projects and feature a
reunion of several hundred former UN guides in November 2002.
The approximately 2,000 former guides include notables such
as former United States Cabinet Secretary Elizabeth Dole among
others. The fiftieth anniversary will serve as an occasion
to encourage former guides to continue to be active advocates
for the United Nations in their own communities.
The Guided
Tours Unit, part of the United Nations Department of Public
Information, now offers tours in over 20 languages, more than
any other tour operation in New York. The guides have long
been considered the Organization’s “ambassadors
to the public”, and their linguistic and geographic diversity
adds a valuable dimension to the operation.
The new
guides come from 15 countries, increasing the total number
of guides to 60. The full staff comes from the following 36
countries: Albania, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Brazil,
Canada, China, Colombia, Comoros, Croatia, Denmark, Germany,
France, Ghana, Greece, India, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan,
Kenya, Lebanon, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Myanmar, New Zealand,
Nigeria, Russia, Senegal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United
States, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
This year’s
recruitment of guides continues to reflect the changing pattern
of visitors to New York. The increasing number of Chinese
visitors to the United Nations, for example, has required
an additional seven Mandarin-speaking guides. To become a
United Nations guide, an applicant must be fluent in English
and in at least one additional language. College education
and public speaking skills are also required.
In the
course of their two-and-a-half week intensive training programme,
the new guides are immersed in the history and functions of
the United Nations main organs, as well as the current activities
of the entire United Nations system.
The United
Nations suspended its guided tour operation in the wake of
the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States,
but resumed guided tours one month later. Guided tours are
conducted every day of the year, except on Thanksgiving Day,
the year-end holidays, and weekends in January and February,
as well as some days during high-level meetings of the General
Assembly. During the hour-long lecture tour, guides answer
many questions about the role of the United Nations in current
events and describe the unique collection of artworks on display
throughout the tour route.
For more information, please contact Helene
Hoedl, Guided Tours Unit,tel:
212-963-3242, fax: 212-963 0071, e-mail: hoedl@un.org or toursunhq@un.org
or visit www.un.org/tours.
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