Leaders of Provincial-level Tourism Bureaus Visited the Examination Sites

Date of Release: March 31, 2015

On March 29, 2015, Guangdong Tour Guide Certification Examination was successfully held. ATA provided testing and other services for this examination. On the test day, leaders of the personnel and education departments, information centers and examination and training centers from the tourism bureaus of 11 provinces and municipalities directly under the Central Government including Guangdong, Beijing, Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Henan, Shanxi, Sichuan, Tianjin, Zhejiang and Chongqing inspected the examination sites. At the demonstration and discussion meeting on the technology-enhanced tour guide certification examination which was held from March 28 to 29, leaders discussed the topics and exchanged their opinions in this regard.

Firstly, Lu Jingjin, deputy director of the Education and Training Department of Guangdong Tourism Bureau delivered a welcoming speech and introduced the 2015 Guangdong Tour Guide Certification Examination to the leaders present at the meeting, followed by ATA giving a live video broadcast of the test sites showing the examinees entering the  test rooms and how the examination was started. Within five minutes after the examination was started, ATA announced the initial examination attendance data to the audience. 

In order for everybody to have a first-hand experience of the benefits of computer based testing, ATA organized an on-site visit for the attendees to Guangdong Light Industry Vocational and Technical School – one of the test sites for Guangdong Tour Guide Certification Examination. In addition, representatives from ATA made a detailed introduction on the technologies and security measures applied to the computer-based exam so that the attendees gain a further understanding of the advantages of computer based testing and the security measures for the safety and operation of such test delivery model.

Wang Yang, director of examination management of Beijing Municipal Training and Examination Center for Tourism Industry, shared with the leaders present at the meeting the experience of launching the reform of computer based testing in Beijing in 2014 and their future plans. According to Wang, computer based test delivery improves the overall test quality, standardizes the testing-related behaviors, and promotes the quality and efficient development of tour guides in Beijing. In addition, computer based testing greatly reduces the administration pressure and guarantees the fairness and impartiality of the examination.

According to Lu Jingjin, deputy director of the Education and Training Department of Guangdong Provincial Bureau for Tourism, although 2015 was the first year when computer based testing model was adopted in Guangdong Tour Guide Certification Examination, the examination-related government departments were confident in  ATA with the implementation of the examination.

Towards the end of the meeting, the leaders present had an active discussion on computer based testing model and relevant  measures for the safety of such delivery, and exchanged their opinions. They agreed that conducting computer based testing had become an inevitable trend. They also believed that traditional model of testing would be soon replaced by computer based testing model, and that examination-related technologies and management would go online and go smarter in an all aspects. 

(If there is any inconsistency or conflict between the English and Chinese version, the Chinese version shall prevail.)