Alasdair on home ground in North Berwick
Alasdair writes his first book
Alasdair has written his first book which tells the story of the Scottish Tourist Guides Association from 1959 to 2019.
Over the past 60 years the association has trained hundreds of tourist guides across the country including Orkney and Shetland and today it has more than 500 members.
“I was one of those trainees and am now a member of the STGA board,” said Alasdair.
“When I realised we were fast approaching our 60th anniversary I came up with the idea of writing a book to tell its history.
“It has taken me 18 months to write the book and thanks to the Coronavirus crisis I have found time to finish it.”
“Not surprisingly if you are writing a book about tourist guides there are some really interesting tales to tell.
‘Among them is the story about how a guide took Prince Edward and his friends on an incognito tour of Edinburgh Castle where the Royal family member queued with everyone else to see the Crown jewels.
Alasdair reveals that Scottish guides have also had huge global influence playing major roles in the World Federation of Tourist Guides Associations (WFTGA) since it was founded in 1985.
Blue Badge guide Jane Orde attended its formation meeting became its president in 1987.
During her time as President Jane encouraged worldwide professional training for guides and promoted International Tourist Guide Day.
Another Scottish guide Ros Newlands also became president of the WFTGA and was awarded an OBE in 2010 for Services to Tourism. She was heavily involved with the setting up of the standard definition of a tourist guide for the European Union.
Guiding Lights: A History of the Scottish Tourist Guides Association 1959-2019 is available to buy as a digital book on Amazon. Price £15.99. All Royalties are going to the association.
