“Real Change Comes from Within!”: Towards a Symbiosis of Human and Digital Guides in the Museum

Extensive research on mobile guides for museums has explored the potential of technology to offer some of the services that have been traditionally provided by human guides, including guiding visitors in the museum space, providing information about the exhibits, and using more advanced interpretative approaches such as digital storytelling and gamified techniques. However, the majority of these approaches either ignores or tries to substitute entirely the role of the human guide. In this work, we present a user study with 10 experienced tour guides, currently working in the museum of modern art of the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation. Based on a three-phase procedure, the study is designed to empower professionals into envisaging their work in symbiosis with current technological developments. First, we attempt to identify existing challenges guides face and to capture their tacit knowledge in addressing emerging problems in guided tours. In the second and third stage, through a reflective and productive discussion, we employ a set of contemporary innovative digital applications as a starting point to elicit their views on their role in an envisaged symbiotic future of human-led hybrid digital experiences.

Pelatihan dan Pendampingan English for Tour Guide Pada Program Pendidikan Kecakapan Kerja 2021 di Kabupaten Situbondo

The Employment Skills Education Program (PKK) is a government assistance program that aims to prepare human resources who are skilled, have character, are competitive, and have the ability to innovate. This is an aid to industry-based courses and training and entrepreneurial opportunities. Through the results of initial observations that have been made, graduated students of English Literature Faculty of Letters UNARS do not have special courses on skills as a tour guide. Through the English for Tour Guide Training program those who are interested in following the skills as a tour guide are included as participants in the 2021 PKK program and will be trained to have competence as a tour guide. PKM program participants who gain the skills to become tour guides will be very useful as their provision to find work. In collaboration with the AUSEI course institution as a service partner for PKM activities, it is hoped that later PKK program participants will have a competency certificate to work. This training and mentoring are carried out for approximately three months where students are given English language guidance and training that focuses on the English for Tour Guide material. During the training, students also had the opportunity to discuss and ask questions if they encountered problems during the training to reach the right solution. The expected outcome of this PKM activity is that students have special skills in English about English for Guides as evidenced by a certificate of competence. Keywords: English, English for Tour Guide, PKK program.

Crowdsourcing Translation for Community-Based Tourism Empowerment in Thailand

English has not only become a lingua franca for global communication, but it also carries a symbolic power that influences local people and stakeholders in community-based tourism (CBT) in Thailand. Thai villagers encounter communicative challenges due to their limited English proficiency. Thai-English speaking tour guides are valued, as they provide translation services on behalf of CBT members whose interactions with foreign tourists are minimal and marginalized. Losses in translation regarding local wisdom and heritage are inevitably unavoidable. This chapter addresses a conceptual model of crowdsourcing translation for CBT. The study hopes that the sociolinguistic and cultural gaps can be bridged for the enhancement of other CBT communities. Crowdsourcing in the form of collaborative translation and volunteering translators' efforts can potentially provide an alternative lens for possible translation scenarios. Tourism operators and stakeholders can apply these practices to assist the local people to promote lesser-known tourist attractions in remote areas in Thailand.

The Use of ICT in Tourist and Educational Literary Routes

This chapter focuses on the use of ICT in literary routes and explores how technologies can influence the tour guides. It begins with a reflection on the key concept of literary routes (from both an educational and tourist perspective) and then considers the antecedents and components that define the guide. Finally, a survey of professionals and teachers with experience in the design and execution of literary routes is carried out in order to explore aspects such as (1) the actual use of ICT on the routes, (2) the synergies between the guide's skills and the use of ICT, and (3) to what extent the use of ICT leads to a change in the role of the guide.

CAN TOUR GUIDES PROTECT THE MARINE AND COASTAL ENVIRONMENT FROM MASS TOURISM IMPACTS: SITUATION OF ANDAMAN OCEAN, THAILAND, PRE-COVID-19

This article studies the role of Thai guides in protecting marine and coastal environment against impacts from international tourism, in the Andaman Ocean, Thailand. This is a qualitative study with in-depth interviews of 26 licensed guides that were selected by using purposive and snowball sampling. Quantitative data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, and qualitative data from in-depth interviews and field notes were analyzed with qualitative data analysis. The results show that behaviors affecting marine and coastal environment mostly involve chasing and catching beautiful fish and/or marine animals (76.9%), feeding fish (73.1%), and collecting beautiful stones, rare shells, and/or coral reefs (73.1%). Guides act in the roles of educator, psychologist, entertainer, ambassador, and servant, and protect against impacts to the extent that they can. While some impacts can be avoided, others remain out of scope and control of the guides.

The Relationship between Self-efficacy and Emotional Intelligence (EI) among Tour Guides

Self-efficacy is a key determinant of successful performance and plays a critical role in affecting an individual’s motivation and behavior. It refers to individuals’ levels of confidence in their ability to execute a course of action or achieve specific performance outcomes. Emotional intelligence (EI), or the intelligent use of emotions, is being recognized as a significant factor at work, and it can be enhanced through proper EI training interventions. Therefore, this study uses self-evaluation to achieve a better understanding of how EI relates to the self-efficacy among tour guides, who significantly influence tourists’ impressions of a destination. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to examine significant relationships between these factors. The results found all EI variables, including Self-Emotion Appraisal, Others’ Emotion Appraisal, Regulation of Emotion, and Use of Emotion, are positively associated with self-efficiency. The results have practical implications, as the abilities of EI are improved through the proper interventions which in turn allow an individual to become more confident in successfully completing tasks when faced with challenging situations, resulting in an increase in one’s positive mindset.

English Language Variation of Tourist Guide: A Case Study of Indonesian Context

Individuals frequently speak English differently depending on their native language or the society they live in. A primary goal of our research is to learn more about the unique linguistic characteristics of the Indonesian people. This study aims to discover the language variation of English used by Indonesian tourist guides. Researchers used library and field research to perform the analysis. The researcher gathered data by recording, transcribing, and categorizing it in three separate processes. Furthermore, the researchers utilized a descriptive qualitative method to examine the usual linguistic features of English used by the tour guide. According to the findings of this study, the code choice of the three tour guides is relatively comparable. They used some particular lexical, namely actually, so, this is I and ‘and then’ In addition, they perform code-switching and code-mixing. Keywords: English, Language Variation, Tourist, Guide, Indonesia

A Historical Review of Illegal Tour Guiding in Turkey

The tour guiding profession was much abused in the past while illegal guiding took place, and remains much the same nowadays. With the use of official documents, this paper outlines issues concerning illegal tour guiding from the past to the present. Document analysis as a qualitative research method was applied in this study. Archival research was carried out, and unpublished documents were analysed to contribute to the literature and shed light on the roots of illegal tour guiding. Archival data was combined with travel guidebooks, official reports, and court files. Despite regulations, problems concerning tour guiding continue to exist to the present day. More than ever before, illegal tour guides employed by travel agencies have become a threat to the employment of licenced guides. The number of illegal tour guides proves that current measures remain incapable of prohibiting illegal guiding activities. Touting seems to be the longstanding main motivation for illegal guides. Unethical guiding practices affect the established image of the destination country. From a historical perspective and underlining issues such as touting through unpublished archived documents and official reports, this paper contributes a detailed understanding of the defective points concerning the travel industry.