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Tourists’ resource integration both offers opportunities and presents challenges to tourism service providers. Focussing on the tour guide perspective, the purpose of this paper is to explore how tour guides experience knowledge/information-based asymmetry in encounters with tourists and identifies the roles and coping strategies used by guides to facilitate service co-production.

Critical incident technique is used in qualitative interviews with 47 tour guides in Scotland, broadly representative of the Scottish tour guiding context. 107 critical incidents were analysed, with an average of 2.32 incidents per interview. Narrative analysis of the incidents was performed inductively in four iterative steps using QSR NVivo.

Three resource asymmetry incident categories are identified: probing – Guide-Oracle is questioned by inquiring tourists and copes through diverting, evasion, and follow-up strategies; learning – Guide-Magpie learns from expert tourists through acknowledging and co-delivery; and negotiation – Guide-Diplomat with greater knowledge helps misguided tourists save face through appeasing, following the official line and tactfully correcting.

The paper contributes to service co-production research in tourism by theorising about contexts where knowledge/information asymmetry exists between tour guides and tourists, particularly where fluid power relations between guides and knowledgeable tourists occur or where misguided tourists co-produce the service by prioritising own meanings. Findings highlight the importance of soft skills and other non-content capabilities of guides, and suggestions are offered for effective training and resource sharing/ learning initiatives for tour guiding services.

游客资源整合为旅游服务提供商提供了机遇, 同时也带来了挑战。本文以导游视角为重点, 探讨了导游在与游客接触中如何体验知识/信息不对称, 并识别了导游用于促进服务共同生产的角色和应对策略。

本研究采用关键事件技术（CIT）进行质性访谈, 对象为苏格兰的47名导游, 广泛代表苏格兰导游环境。分析了107个关键事件, 每次访谈平均2.32个事件。对事件的叙述分析在QSR NVivo中通过四个迭代步骤进行归纳性分析。

确定了三个资源不对称的事件类别：1）探询 - 导游-神谕被询问, 通过转移、回避和后续策略来应对询问的游客; 2）学习 - 导游-喜鹊通过承认和共同交付从专业游客中学到经验; 3）协商 - 导游-外交官以更多知识帮助误导的游客保全体面, 通过安抚、追随官方路线和巧妙纠正来应对。

本文通过理论化导游和游客之间存在知识/信息不对称的情境, 特别是在导游和知识丰富的游客之间存在流动权力关系的情况下, 或者误导的游客通过优先考虑自己的意义来共同生产服务的情境, 为旅游服务的共同生产研究做出了贡献。研究结果强调了导游的软技能和其他非内容能力的重要性, 并提出了关于为导游服务提供有效培训和资源共享/学习倡议的建议。

La integración de recursos de los turistas ofrece oportunidades y presenta desafíos para los proveedores de servicios turísticos. Centrándose en la perspectiva de los guías turísticos, este artículo explora cómo los guías turísticos experimentan una asimetría basada en conocimiento/información en encuentros con turistas, e identifica los roles y estrategias de afrontamiento utilizados por los guías para facilitar la coproducción de servicios.

La técnica de incidentes críticos (CIT) se utiliza en entrevistas cualitativas con 47 guías turísticos en Escocia, ampliamente representativos del contexto de los guías turísticos escoceses. Se analizaron 107 incidentes críticos, con una media de 2,32 incidentes por entrevista. El análisis narrativo de los incidentes se realizó de forma inductiva en cuatro pasos iterativos utilizando QSR NVivo.

Se identifican tres categorías de incidentes de asimetría de recursos: 1) Sondeo: los turistas interrogan a Guide-Oracle y lo afronta mediante estrategias de desvío, evasión y seguimiento; 2) Aprendizaje: Guide-Magpie aprende de turistas expertos a través del reconocimiento y la entrega conjunta; y 3) Negociación: el guía-diplomático con mayor conocimiento ayuda a los turistas descarriados a salvar las apariencias apaciguándolos, siguiendo la línea oficial y corrigiendo con tacto.

El artículo contribuye a la investigación de la coproducción de servicios en el turismo al teorizar sobre contextos donde existe asimetría de conocimiento/información entre guías turísticos y turistas, particularmente donde ocurren relaciones de poder fluidas entre guías y turistas conocedores, o donde turistas equivocados coproducen el servicio priorizando propios significados. Los hallazgos resaltan la importancia de las habilidades interpersonales y otras capacidades de los guías no relacionadas con el contenido, y se ofrecen sugerencias para iniciativas efectivas de capacitación e intercambio de recursos/aprendizaje para los servicios de guías turísticos.

This study investigates to what extent the values perceived by tourists throughout cultural tours impact their overall satisfaction levels and behavioral intentions related to the destination. This study further examines the moderating role of tour guide competency in the relationship patterns concerned.

Empirical data were collected via a survey from 420 foreign tourists who visited Cappadocia and participated in guided cultural tours. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling was used for data analysis.

Study results reveal that the effects of quality, emotional, monetary and social value perceptions of tourists gained through cultural tour experiences on their overall satisfaction levels and the effects of overall satisfaction on recommendation and revisit intention are positive and significant. Furthermore, the moderating role of tour guide competency is significant and positive in the relationships between quality value and satisfaction and between satisfaction and revisit intention.

This study offers a critical analysis of discoveries concerning the pivotal role of tour guide competency within the cultural tour experience.

This paper aims to explore work interfering with family (WIF) and family interfering with work (FIW) as the mediators linking psychological resilience to happiness.

Data gathered from tour guides in Türkiye were used to test the aforesaid associations. In this paper, partial least squares structural equation modeling was performed to gauge the direct links and mediating impacts of WIF and FIW simultaneously in the link between psychological resilience and happiness.

Psychological resilience exerts a dual influence on WIF and FIW. Simply put, psychologically resilient tour guides balance their work demands with those of the family or vice versa and exhibit low levels of WIF and FIW. As hypothesized, WIF and FIW are the two mediating mechanisms relating psychological resilience to happiness.

It is important to create a family-supportive atmosphere where tour guides can avail themselves of family-friendly practices (i.e. family leave, flexible work schedules, breaks to be spent with family members after long tours and convenient working hours). Psychologically resilient tour guides, with the abovementioned practices, would experience alleviated conflicts between work and family roles and would therefore have heightened happiness.

Although the extant literature has presented plenty of empirical studies about the predictors and outcomes of WIF and FIW, evidence about the links of personal resources as third variables to WIF and FIW simultaneously is still scanty. In addition, there is no evidence linking personal resources such as psychological resilience to nonwork outcomes such as happiness through the mediating roles of WIF and FIW. This paper fills in these voids by gauging the links given above using data collected from tour guides, a population that has been subjected to limited inquiry in the WIF and FIW literature.

Tour guides play a significant role in sustainable tourism development as leaders, mediators, resource managers and promoters of economic prosperity. This paper aims to show how local Tibetan tour guides practice sustainable tourism in their encounters with Western tourists.

The data consists primarily of 15 in-depth interviews with native Tibetan guides,Content analysis of the data were undertaken.

It was found that the guides adopt sustainable tourism practices based on their local religious wisdom and experiences as they try to establish harmonious host–guest relationships. Western clients also encourage guides to adopt more proenvironmental behaviors. The “hosts” live by Buddhist concepts such as samsara that are in line with concepts such as altruism and benevolence. Most “guests” are well-behaved and try to build sincere mutual relationships with local people. Host and guest cocreate value for local sustainable tourism practice.

Tour guides can practice sustainable tourism in a leadership role or as mediators, resource managers or promoters of economic prosperity. They also maintain a sincere and kind relationship with their guests that goes beyond the instrumental host–guest relationship and might help to cocreate value for local sustainable tourism practices.

Tour guides’ sustainable practices have been examined in the past based on their roles as leader, mediator, resource manager and promoter of economic prosperity. But researchers have seldom examined circumstances in which the tourists and tour guides were from different cultures. This paper addresses this gap.

导游作为领导者、中介者、资源管理者和经济繁荣的促进者, 在旅游可持续发展中发挥着重要的作用。本文展示了藏族导游在与西方游客的接触中如何实践可持续旅游。

深度访谈15个对当地藏族导游, 对收集的数据进行内容分析。

导游基于本土的宗教智慧和经验, 尝试与建立更加和谐的主客关系时, 从而实现可持续旅游实践。西方客户也鼓励导游采取更环保的行为。“主人” 的生活遵循佛教轮回等观念, 提倡“利他”、“仁爱”。大多数“客人” 都行为得体, 试图与当地人建立真诚的相互关系。主客共同为当地可持续旅游实践创造价值。

导游可以作为领导角色或中介、资源管理者或经济繁荣的促进者实践可持续旅游。他们还与客人保持真诚和友好的关系, 这超越了工具性的主客关系, 可能有助于共同为当地可持续旅游实践创造价值。

在过去的研究中, 导游的可持续实践基于他们作为领导者、中间人、资源管理者和经济繁荣的促进者。但研究人员对游客和导游来自不同文化的情境缺少关注, 我们的研究试图解答这一问题。

Los guías turísticos desempeñan un papel importante en el desarrollo del turismo sostenible como líderes, mediadores, administradores de recursos y promotores de la prosperidad económica. Este documento muestra, cómo los guías turísticos tibetanos locales practican el turismo sostenible en sus encuentros con turistas occidentales.

Los datos consisten principalmente en 15 entrevistas en profundidad con guías tibetanos nativos. Los datos fueron analizados mediante el método de análisis de contenido.

Se encontró que, los guías adoptan prácticas de turismo sostenible basadas en su sabiduría y experiencias religiosas locales, mientras intentan establecer relaciones armoniosas entre el anfitrión y el huésped. Los clientes occidentales, también alientan a los guías a adoptar comportamientos más proambientales. Los “anfitriones”, viven según conceptos budistas, como el samsara, que están en línea con conceptos como el altruismo y la benevolencia. La mayoría de los “visitantes” se comportan bien y tratan de construir relaciones mutuas sinceras con la gente local. El anfitrión y el huesped, co-crean valor para la práctica local de turismo sostenible.

Los guías turísticos pueden practicar el turismo sostenible en un papel de liderazgo o como mediadores, administradores de recursos o promotores de la prosperidad económica. También mantienen una relación sincera y amable con sus huéspedes que va más allá de la relación instrumental anfitrión-huésped y podría ayudar a co-crear valor para las prácticas locales de turismo sostenible.

Las prácticas sostenibles de nuestra guía han sido examinadas en el pasado en función de sus roles como líder, mediador, gestor de recursos y promotor de la prosperidad económica. Pero los investigadores, rara vez han examinado las circunstancias en las que los turistas y los guías turísticos eran de diferentes culturas. Abordamos esta brecha.

Tour guides often use humor to entertain tourists, but the process of tour guide humor (TGH) affecting tourists’ positive word of mouth (PWOM) remains unclear. To fill the gap, this study aims to investigate how TGH enhances tourists’ PWOM through perceived relationship investment, perceived wellness value and trust in tour guides.

A comprehensive mediation model was proposed based on social exchange theory (SET). Data were obtained from 335 tour group tourists and analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Results present that TGH positively predicts tourists’ PWOM. Perceived relationship investment, perceived wellness value and trust in tour guides not only play mediating roles between TGH and tourists’ PWOM, respectively, but also jointly provide two sequential mediation paths (TGH → perceived relationship investment → trust in tour guides → tourists’ PWOM and TGH → perceived wellness value → trust in tour guides → tourists’ PWOM).

The findings have practical value for tour guides and travel agencies to use TGH to improve tourists’ PWOM.

The major contribution is that a reciprocity-based framework rooted in SET was proposed to parse the complex process of TGH promoting tourists’ PWOM. Furthermore, this study enriches current knowledge by confirming that perceived wellness value is not only available in wellness tourism but can be experienced from TGH in mass tourism.

Despite the significance of tour guiding and interpreting in the tourism system, relevant research is lacking in both depth and breadth. Current scholarly work tends to ignore tour guides’ self-expectations and assumes they are altruistic mediators who carry out their tasks without question. Considering tourism intermediaries are rational individuals who attempt to maximize their own benefits, the purpose of this paper is to situate tour guiding and interpreting practices in a larger political and social context, to explore the external and intrapersonal factors that might influence the content and approaches of interpreting Chinese communist heritage.

Considering tourism intermediaries are rational individuals who attempt to maximize their own benefits, this study situates tour guiding and interpreting practices in a larger political and social context, to explore the external and intrapersonal factors that might influence the content and approaches of interpreting Chinese communist heritage.

The study reveals that institutional arrangements, environmental settings, characteristics of tourists and tourist-intermediary onsite interactions can have salient repercussions on intermediaries’ job skills, career attitudes and orientation, and self-perceived roles, and further shape their way of interpreting the past. Several managerial implications regarding enhancing the effectiveness of tour guiding and interpreting are also discussed.

It is mentioned above. The Chinese government has invested enormously in red tourism to achieve a political end. In reality, however, there are always gaps between official narratives and actual interpretation. To lessen such deviation, efforts are needed to understand the dynamics of tour guiding practices. Anchoring interpretation and guiding practices in a broader political, social, and economic context, this paper attempts to improve the static research by comparing two major types of intermediaries, site interpreter and tour guide, with regard to the content of, and approach to their interpretation of red heritage. It provides an in-depth insight into the meaning-making process of the communist heritage tourism in China.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of the experience economy and co-creation concepts on guided tours (GTs) and to analyze the process of the on-site (co-)creation of experience between the service provider and the consumer taking into account the consumer perspective.

The objective of the study is fulfilled by reviewing the literature on experience economy and co-creation within a cultural heritage context and then using it to design appropriate research tools to collect empirical data through qualitative interviews within the context of a single case study. The Medieval Town of Rhodes (MTR), Greece, serves as the case in this study. In fact, this study analyzes primary data from 25 interviews with participants in GTs in the MTR.

The GT participant’s views of their GT experience were explored, and it was evaluated whether they fit any of the three generations of experience economy with an emphasis on co-creation of experience. The findings show that, in the MTR-GT services, the characteristics of mainly the first and second generation experience economies are found, while little emphasis is given to the third generation experience economy. Based on the empirical results, the RIF model (R: “Resources,” I: “Interactions,” F: “Feelings”) was created: this proposes that both the process of experience co-creation and optimal GT experiences are realized by providing participants with appropriate resources, multiple types of interactions and opportunities to generate positive and pleasant feelings. This model illustrates the intertwining, multi-dimensional facets of an optimal co-created GT experience that service providers and tour operators should provide to their customers.

The present study has several limitations that need to be mentioned. First, this research is a single case study; the MTR serves as the case, focusing on one cultural heritage service, GTs. This fact can put the study’s validity in question. Moreover, as the research is conducted by a single person, there is the risk of subjective bias. Another limitation is that this study is not a longitudinal one; the latter could lead to more accurate findings. The number and the nationality of participants constitute the 4th and final limitation of the research. More specifically, the sample is not perceived to be representative of the population nor generalizable, while visitors from more nationalities could have been interviewed. In relation to this, the judgmental sampling method was used because the population of the study could not be defined. This serves as the fifth limitation of the study.

Tour operators and tour guides can exploit the characteristics of GT activities included in the proposed RIF model. By incorporating these elements in GT experiences, the process of experience co-creation could be effectively supported. An optimal GT experience that incorporates intertwining and multi-dimensional facets could be provided. To begin with, the physical setting where the tour takes place must be well preserved, so that it can capture the attention of the participants. The route of the tour should not be exhausting but convenient for all participants and should include various landscapes. On the other hand, tour guides should provide interesting, relevant and cohesive information. Moreover, a tour guide needs to display charismatic behavior to gain the tour group’s trust and generate positive feelings impressing and immersing participants in the experience and encouraging in them a sense of togetherness. Within the context of the tour, tangible elements such as brochures and maps should be provided, allowing vistors to tailor the experience according to their needs and preferences. Furthermore, interaction between the guide and the tour group, as well as among the participants themselves, should be encouraged. In relation to this, the tour group could be divided into sub-groups according to common features such as age. The guides could also come up with a topic to be jointly discussed and participatory activities such as games could be organized. Finally, participants should have some freedom during the tour; time to explore the setting on their own or a visit to specific places on request.

The originality of the paper lies in the development of the RIF model, illustrating the on-site optimal experience within the context of GTs taking place in the MTR, the setting of the research. The construction of the RIF model was based on an investigation into actual GT participant’s perspectives on GTs.

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the communication competency of tour guides using a modified importance–performance analysis (MIPA). Tour guides are cultural ambassadors of a country; their communication skills can make or break tourists’ experiences with guided tours and memories of a destination.

Data were collected from 387 professional tour guides representing 38 per cent of all tour guides in Antalya, Turkey. The study further performs factor analysis using 32 communication competency items to determine underlying performance dimensions. This is followed by an MIPA to statistically identify the gap between factors that tour guides consider important and their perceptions of how they perform on these factors.

The study reveals that tour guides need improvement in verbal skills such as grammar, manner of speech and choice of words, as well as non-verbal behaviors such as approachability and the ability to remain friendly while maintaining a certain personal space.

Due to the nature of this study and certain time limitations, the most effective method proved to be collecting data from a convenient sample of tour guides during their annual workshop. The theory of behavioral communication competency details theoretical and practical implications.

The study findings provide tour operators and the Association of Professional Tour Guides with a platform from which they can launch educational seminars and workshops to enhance tour guides’ communication competency.

The study contributes two main findings: This research provides a first-of-its-kind examination of professional tour guides’ communication competency using MIPA. The study improves the efficacy of traditional importance–performance analysis (IPA) models by enhancing them with a gap analysis through a t-test and effect size analysis including a gap analysis takes the arbitrariness out of the process of determining the location of items within the IPA grid. Tourism service providers can use these findings to offer educational seminars that can increase the skill sets of tour guides.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a theoretical framework, the holistic mental model process, with major contextual factors (cultural, situation, cognitive and affective contexts) to help better understand tourists’ perception and evaluation of intercultural tourists–tour guide service encounters.

Summary tables of an extensive literature review of previous empirical studies relating to intercultural service encounters, service encounter and service quality to help derive the holistic mental model process framework are included.

Gaps from the previous literature were identified along with in-depth explanations as to how a holistic mental model process can be applied to tourists evaluating intercultural tourist–tour guide service encounters and the service quality of their overall travel experience.

The current conceptual framework of the holistic mental model process targets specifically on the intercultural tourists–tour guide service encounters. More in-depth empirical studies can be conducted focusing on specific variables of the intercultural tourist–tour guide service encounters and on the factor differences between specific cultures.

This research has practical implications for travel agencies and tourism companies. Travel agencies and tour companies can apply the holistic mental model process framework to examine and analyze the influential variables between tourists and tour guide (i.e. cultural differences, etiquette, norms and behaviors), thus design better tour guide training programs accordingly.

Service encounter is a social activity that is influenced by the social environment. To achieve the best service quality, all parties, including tourists, tour guide, tour companies, host community, must understand cultural differences; work together in coordination and cooperation.

This is the first study that provides an in-depth holistic mental model process by integrating major contextual factors to examine tourists’ evaluation of intercultural service encounters between themselves and tour guides.

The purpose of this paper is to point to the significance of temporally charged imaginaries of neglected places and their residents in the context of slum tourism research. It examines the way in which tour guides draw on specific temporalities to recast the poverty and stigma of the Mexico City barrio of Tepito and thus design narratives to alter long-held imaginaries of this neighbourhood.

Two tours are analysed through an anthropological lens using ethnographic methods. Authors took part in the tours, registering the guides’ discourse and interventions, as well as the places and situations observed. The insights of this paper stem from the empirical evidence and reveal how diverse imaginaries are enacted through tour guiding.

Without necessarily following a single, coherent narrative, tour guides link different moments in time to simultaneously generate and contest slum tour imaginaries. The guides in this case study not only challenge existing stereotypes, but also critically engage political neglect while showcasing Tepito’s potentiality. Even so, the analysed tours seek to recast the barrio as integral to Mexico City’s history and future.

Until now, the importance of temporalities in the generation of imaginaries in slum tourism research has gained only little attention. The case study presented here show how alternative forms of tourism are offering unconventional readings of urban neighbourhoods. These processes, the authors argue, help not only re-imagine disadvantaged districts, such as Tepito, but also to re-think the city as a whole in terms of its past, present and future.