The first step out the door

Created in the spirit of raising the quality of tour guiding in the Philippines by Tourism Secretary Joseph H. Durano, the Mabuhay guides are the products of an intensive six-week training course, the Mabuhay Guides Foundation Course. This course, unlike the many other training courses the DOT has offered in the past, was offered to all who would be interested as a free-of-charge opportunity with only one caveat: pass the qualifying tests and interviews. More than a hundred people applied; 51 were interviewed; and only 24 applicants were deemed qualified to take the Mabuhay Guides Foundation Course.

After all, the Philippines' tour guides serve as unofficial public relations people and promoters of the country. They tell our stories, they reveal our history. They talk about the Filipinos. Their skills determine how we are remembered as a country.

Them whose badges are blue

The contents of the training program of the Mabuhay Guides Foundation Course were developed by the London Blue Badge tourist guides, the standard to which tour guide training should conform. The Blue Badge is the highest qualification of a UK professional tour guide. The first of the Blue Badges were given out in 1951 when tour guides were trained for the Festival of Britain. They are now lending their expertise in the formation of tourist guides who, in the future, will be able to, in turn, train other aspiring Mabuhay Guides candidates.

Real stories

A person is experience condensed. Mabuhay Guides recognizes that and aims to provide all who would like to tour the Philippines with people who have truly experienced the Philippines and can make sure that you don't miss a single vibrant moment lest your experience be incomplete.

Mabuhay Guides doesn't set you up in hotels; it doesn't book you on a bus. Mabuhay Guides provides you the people who can tell you all that's going on outside the window you're looking out of and the history of the land you just stepped onto as you get off that boat — we take care of the stories behind all that you see.

The Mabuhay Guides journey started over a year ago. When will yours begin?

"The best thing about being a Mabuhay Guide is that one has the opportunity to take direct action in opening eyes of foreign and local tourists so that they may see. understand and appreciate this beautiful creaion called Filipino"

-Bryan Ocampo