The Northern Ireland Tourist Guide Association is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a weekend of free tours for the public.
The organisation has planned this series of events, all led by their members, to coincide with International Tourist Guide Day.
Currently, there are now more than 100 NITGA members, all professionally qualified guides covering every region and many who can speak a wide range of languages including Japanese, Russian, German, French and Chinese.
Virginia Moriarty, one of the organisation's founding members, said it grew out of the very first Blue Badge tourist guide course, which ran at Queen’s University in 1991/92.
"About a dozen of us took this course and when it finished, we wanted to keep working together to develop tourism and professional guiding in Northern Ireland," she said.
"We started at just the right time. This was our chance to show them around and tell them about our history and culture. The reaction was simply fantastic".
Catherine Burns, NITGA Chairperson, said: "Tourist guides are great ambassadors for our country, able to bring alive the culture, history and stories that make us unique.
"We are often the first local people that visitors may meet and it’s important that we give a lasting impression and a warm welcome," she said.
"We’re now looking forward to a resurgence in tourism as visitors return in greater numbers and NITGA members will play a very important role in this post-Covid economic recovery".
The NITGA is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a number of free tours this weekend, February 19-21.
These tours include Armagh Mall, Carrickfergus, the history of Comber, Derry and beautiful Ballycastle, Stormont woodland and the Queen’s Quarter.
Further information about the free tours, which take place February 19-21, is available at nitga.co.uk.
