International Tourist Guide Day 2019

All Tour Guides of Abu Dhabi were invited on Thursday to celebrate the global International Tourist Guide Day together, at an event organised by the Department of Culture & Tourism. I was lucky to be able to participate, it was a lovely morning at the Manarat Al Saadyiat.

We got goodie bags, and breakfast on arrival:

Then there was a few speeches and also a special honouring of the 28 guides who have been licensed Abu Dhabi Tour Guides for more than 10 years. They got nice glassed trophies:

It was great to get to celebrate "our day" together with so many of my colleagues! In a way our job is quite a lonely job, we rarely see each other, so this was a nice opportunity for us to get to spend some downtime together. Here are Anne and Aleks, two of my colleagues:

There was a lot of group photos, I'm in this one, top right in black sunnies:

One of the most amazing things I took away from today though, was meeting Mohammed Mandi. He is the famous Emirati calligraphy artist who has decorated the Qibla wall in the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque with the 99 names of Allah.
I was star struck!

He did individual souvenirs for us all, our name written in calligraphy. So special!

We also got to enjoy a light lunch - what a great morning, I hope DCT will celebrate "our day" every year from now on! Happy International Tourist Guide Day to us!