DAW Tin Nwe Nwe Oo, 42, has dreamed of being a tour guide since she was a child. For a long time it seemed an unattainable goal; in the early 1990s, tourist arrivals in Myanmar barely broke 100,000 and there was little demand for tour guides.

But a decade ago, at the age of 32, she was able to realise her dream and now organises tours for English, German and Spanish tourists.

“After finishing university I chose to work as an English tutor at Yangon University because there was not enough demand for tourist guides in those days, there was only a small chance to earn a living,” she says.

She spent the next ten years teaching in Thailand and Singapore with her husband and raising their two sons. But she was always determined to make her dream come true and, like many others, gave up her old career to become a tour guide following the Visit Myanmar Year in 1996.

Daw Tin Nwe Nwe Oo completed a tourist guide training course offered by Ministry of Hotels and Tourism in 1997 that she says helped her to understand the importance of tourism to a country’s image.

“During the two month training period, we learned a lot, read a lot because it can be argued that a tourist guide is a diplomat and helps create a good image for their country. So our behaviour and attitude are really important and visitors judge our country on this conduct,” she said.

She says a tourist guide must not only be polite and patient but also have good knowledge, confidence and a sense of humour – all things that have helped her in the past 10 years, including one journey to Mandalay she recalls vividly.

She also said that guides have a big responsibility to look after their client’s safety throughout the trip. “At the floating market at Inle lake, near Nyaung Shwe, one of my tourists fell into the lake while she was buying something. I was so worried! But fortunately, there was no problem, she wasn’t hurt at all. This kind of accident can also happen at Taungtaman Lake in Amarapura township near Mandalay but it shows how important it is that tourist guides care for their clients’ safety.”

She says part of the tourist guide’s life is to be away from home a lot – sometimes more than a week. “But my family has no problem with my job. My husband and his family support me because they all know that this is my dream and want me to be successful in my career.”

Daw Tin Nwe New Oo says the foreign tourists she guides often become her close friends and she says after Cyclone Nargis she received many messages from past clients asking about her family’s safety.

“This is another great thing about working as a tour guide. We make friends not only with people from Myanmar but also from abroad,” she said.

Daw Tin Nwe Nwe Oo says while it is now more difficult for young people to be admitted to the training course and become a tour guide there is always a place in the industry for people following their dream.