In the rapid expansion of global tourism, tour guides play an important role in bridging cultures. Having an excellent intercultural communication competence (ICC) will be critical for their success. Based on the behavioral expectation model (Pavitt & Haight, 1985), Leclerc & Martin (2004) showed cross-cultural variations of the tour guides’ ICC among the American, French and German travelers. However this study also raises question about the appropriateness of applying ICC frameworks, developed in the US, to other cultures.

1. Intercultural Communication Competence
of an Excellent Tour Guide
- Comparative Studies of Expectation from American, Chinese,
and German Tourist Perspectives -
by Prof.Dr.Hora Tjitra & Gao Li
Zhejiang University,China
contact us at hora_t@me.com

2. Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity 2
Tourism provide a perfect context for the study of Intercultural
Communication Competence (ICC). Through travel, people are
temporally migrating to other destinations and cultures, and tourism
provides an opportunity for improving international understanding.
Tour guide play a special role in these intercultural interactions
China is a big market for the international tourism. The World
Tourism Organization (WTO) forecasts that China will generate 100
million outbound tourists and become the fourth largest country of
tourist origin in the world by 2020. Correspondingly, the number of
foreign visitors has increased too. The number of foreign visitors to
China is reach 100,000,000 in 2004 according to the China Tourism
Green Book.
The“Intercultural”Role of Tour Guide in International Tourism

3. Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity 3
Behavioral Expectation Model (Pavitt & Haight,1985)
• Individuals hold cognitive notions of what
comprises competence in particular contexts.
• They then form impressions and evaluations
of others’ behaviors based on these notions.
• The degree to which the ideal meets the
expected is the degree to which behavior is
to judged competent

4. Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity 4
• Investigates the applicability and relevance of communication competency research
in a cross-cultural tourism setting
• Focus on how American, French and German travellers perceived the importance of
tour guide communication competence.
micro
macro
1. Nonverbal behaviors
2. Topic/content behaviors
3. Conversational management
behaviors
4. Communicative function dimension
Intercultural Communication Competence according to Martin & Hammer (1989)
Tour Guide Communication Competence: French,German and American
Tourists’Perception (Leclerc& Martin 2004)

5. Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity 5
Behavioral communication competences scales
American
(n=190)
French (n=54)
German
(n=107)
F value
5.56 4.86 4.49 
5.08 4.45 3.77 
5.17 4.28 4.68 
4.46 3.84 3.31 
5.89 5.03 4.90 
4.40 3.43 3.33 
Assertiveness 3.52 3.33 3.15
5.98 6.05 5.00 
Multiple analysis of variance for the behavioural communication competence scales
Result
Approachability
Attentiveness
Language adaptability
Interpersonal inclusion
Poise
Touch
Traits*
a. American group perceived CC as more important then Europeans on all
dimensions except for the ‘trait’ dimension.
b. the European were statistically similar to each other
The results indicate that there are at least two indicators that suggest
possible validity problems

6. Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity 6
Tour Guides’Intercultural Communication Competence (TCC)
Empirical Research
1. TCC (Leclerc & Martin, 2004)
2. Method: Questionnaire
3. Result: cultural differences of TCC among DE,FR,US
4. Question: appropriateness of applying US TCC framework to
other cultures
Theoretical Background
1. Theories of ICS focus on communication
2. Research from western perspective
(Martin &Hammer,1989)
Literature review
Building Tour Guides' Intercultural Communication Competence Model
1. Group Discussion: new inputs from non US perspective
2. Content analysis: a. Inductive analysis b. Deductive analysis
Compare cultural differences on Tour Guides’ Intercultural Communication Competence
Cultural Sensitive Questionnaire on TCC - Respondents are international tourists from China, Germany and US

7. Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity 7
Qualitative Research Method:Group Discussion (GD)
GD Design
•Pure Chinese Groups (5)
•Chinese - Other Asian
Groups
• Chinese with Korean
• Chinese with Malaysian
• Chinese with Pakistan
•Chinese - Western Groups
• Chinese with German (2)
• Chinese with Australian
Number of participants: 62
Number of groups: 11
Videos
Flipcharts
Short movies of tour guide
Closing
Introduction
Preliminary discussion
Question 1
Divided discussion
Question 2 & 3
Plenary discussion
Question 4
ProcedureProcedureData
Pictures of
Participants

8. Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity 8
Inductive Content Analysis Procedure (adapted from Mayring,2000)
Research Questions:
What is effective tour guide’s intercultural communication
competence from the perspective of international travelers?
Levels of abstraction for inductive categories
1. Dimension level: e.g. Communication Skill
2. Sub dimension level: e.g. non verbal Communication skill
3. Item level: e.g. smile
Step by step formulation of inductive categories
Three Steps in analyzing each group
1. Generalize at the Third level
2. Generalize at the Second level
3. Generalize at the First level
Revision of Categories:
After the first, the fourth and the last group,
make revision according to related theories
Final Results: The Structural categories of TCC

9. Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity 9
Deductive content analysis procedure on the transcription
of group discussion
Begin with
TCC Characteristics
Develop
Coding Manual
Analysis
the first group
Revise
Coding Manual
Analysis
2-4 groups
Finish coding
manual & reanalysis 1-4
Analysis group
of 5-9
Reliability Test &
Results

10. Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity 10
TCC Characteristics based on the initial results
of inductive content analysis
Dimension Sub dimension
Knowledge
Cultural knowledge
Knowledge
Local knowledge
Knowledge Emergent knowledge
Knowledge
Procedural knowledge
Communication skills
Language ability
Communication skills
Good rhetoric
Communication skills Active listeningCommunication skills
Body language
Communication skills
Entertainment ability
Traits
Extroversion
Traits
Consciousness
Traits Confidence
Traits
Nice appearance
Interpersonal relationship
Leading role
Interpersonal relationship
Customer orientation
Interpersonal relationship Empathy
Interpersonal relationship
Renqing

11. Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity 11
Tour Guides’Intercultural Communication Competence
from the cultural perspectives
Based on the ICC model generated in the group discussion,
a fifty-one items questionnaire was developed.
The questionnaire was distributed to around 300 travelers
from China, Germany, American tourists.
The questionnaire is composed of four parts:
1. the first one is to detest the cross-cultural experiences of the respondents;
the second one is about the expectation for high tour guides’ intercultural
2. communication competence;
3. the third is concerned with the demographic information
4. and the last one is an investigation for the major reason of touring.
Hypotheses:
H1: American tourist would emphasized communication skills as very
important (Leclerc & Martin, 2004)
H2: German tourist would like to have an “intellectual” tour guide
(Intellectual Autonomy - Schwartz)
H3: Chinese tourist would emphasized personality and interpersonal skills
of the tour guide (Guanxi - Ren)

12. Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity 12
Sample of the Questionnaire

13. Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity 13
The respondents’demographic information

14. Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity 14
Cultural Specific Reliability Test of the Four Competence Dimension
Reliability Test in the Four Competence Dimension

15. Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity 15
Comparison of the expectation of excellent tour guide
from the American,Chinese and German Tourists
Table 3.3.1 variance analysis of results for TCC from three countries
Sum of square df F value
knowledge Between-subjects 6.59 2 6.33*
Communication skills Between-subjects 27.95 2 29.94**
Traits Between-subjects 3.69 2 3.9*
Interpersonal relationship Between-subjects 1.30 2 1.41
Note：* P<.05, ** P<.01.

16. Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity 16
The conclusion
a) For the dimension of Knowledge, there are significant
differences among the three countries, of which, Germany
hold highest expectation for the knowledge of tour guides’.
b) For communication skills, there are significant differences
among the three countries, of which, Chinese hold highest
expectation for the communication skills of tour guides’.
c) With respect to traits, there are significant differences
among the three countries, of which, Chinese hold highest
expectation for the traits of tour guides’.
d) There is no significant difference among the three countries
in the area of interpersonal skills.

17. Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity
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