New Paradigms of the Tourist Guide Profession

In this chapter, using the Portuguese tourist guides as an example, the author intends to expose the reality of the profession and how it is nowadays necessary to adapt it to the new tourism paradigms. The pandemic, which has suddenly and deeply affected tourist guides, will also be one of the topics. A brief historical background of the profession will be given to be able to understand what a tourist guide is today, as well as the skills needed for the profession obtained through education and training, which are also one of the topics presented. The way these professionals have been dealing with digitals and how new technological tools are being used for the profession will be explained. Issues like authenticity, responsibility, and the contribution of tourist guides to develop tourism destinations will also be covered in the text.

TOURIST GUIDES, COVID 19 AND SURVIVAL MECHANISMS IN SOUTH AFRICA

The main aim of this research was to investigate the survival mechanisms employed by tourist guides in the context of the Covid 19 Pandemic. A mixed method research design was adopted, using in-depth interviews with key tourism informants and surveys administered to tourist guides in Gauteng. A total of five key informant interviews and two hundred surveys were collected at the end of the data collection period. Key findings indicate that many tourist guides were unable to access the aforementioned fund and had to implement their own short and long-term survival mechanisms. In many cases, various cost cutting measures were implemented and the utilization of personal savings and loans. Other guides temporarily engaged in different employment to secure an income. This study presents policy and systemic recommendations, which, if accepted and implemented, could assist the reignition of the tourist guide profession post-pandemic and ensure they form part of the tourism sector recovery trajectory. Additionally, further research on tourist guides in South Africa needs to be conducted, to fully understand the various aspects of this profession in the country.

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

INVESTIGATION OF GIS BASED MOBILE ROUTE PLANNING – NAVIGATION APPLICATIONS FOR TOURISM ACTIVITIES

Mobile devices can be used in many areas such as shopping, entertainment and education. The number of mobile applications which provides information about a city or region, helps to find route by navigation and makes accommodation plans with food and beverage suggestions, is also increasing. Since these devices are portable and have access to internet, they emerges as a new and important potential for tourism sector. In particular, the increase in the use of route planning and navigation applications, which are location based services within the scope of Geographic Information Systems, has also affected the tourism sector. Which route planning and navigation applications are used extensively by tour operators, tourist guides and individual visitors ? What are the strengths and weaknesses about these applications? Answers to such questions were sought in this study.

Element of Politeness in Intercultural Communication: The Case Study of Japanese and Malaysian Tourists

The number of Japanese tourists visiting Malaysia has consistently ranked in the top ten over the last 20 years. Japan has been the country of choice for Malaysian tourists over the previous ten years. It is, therefore, crucial that tourism communication in the cross-cultural context between Malaysia and Japan is used as a reference to improve the cross-cultural communication skills of the tourism employees involved. This article discusses the external structure of Japanese conversation between native Japanese speakers and Malaysian tourist guides and native Malay speakers with Japanese tourist guides. This study is qualitative and uses the discourse analysis approach. A total of four conversation sessions in the form of Free Independent Travel (FIT) tourism were held in Malacca and Tokyo. The conversations were recorded, and the researchers also made notes throughout the conversation to see the sentence structures and non-linguistic elements to complete the data. The recording was then transcribed and encoded before being analysed. Only the conversations by tourist guides were analysed and included in the contents of this article as the focus of the study is more on the external form and politeness of the Japanese language used by Malaysian and Japanese tourist guides in demonstrating solidarity and similarities in the context of cross-cultural conversation. Data analysis shows many similarities in the selection of vocabulary and specific verb forms by Japanese and Malaysian tourist guides to show courtesy and friendliness in the conversation. This proves that Japanese language skills by Malaysian tourist guides are almost on par with Japanese tourist guides. Malaysian tourist guides also have a vast knowledge of the culture and nature of the Japanese language.

Journeys to polyglotism: a case study of French, Spanish, and Japanese tourist guides

The study aimed at discovering the process through which three tourist guides of French, Spanish, and Japanese acquired different foreign languages. The data was taken through in-depth interviews to explore the motivation that drove their language learning, the language interference, the technique they used to self-teach themselves the language, and their immersion in the language’s native country. The recorded interviews were then transcribed and analyzed through data reduction, data display, and verification drawing. The results were then given to the subjects to ensure trustworthiness and to verify the researcher’s interpretation of the interview. The study found that 1) one of the most crucial factors of language learning success was strong motivation, which led to consistency and risk-taking attitude; 2) a significant growth of language mastery took place when the subjects spent extended time in the language’s native country; 3) both formal classroom instruction and informal independent learning were essential for their language improvement; 4) the subjects proactively consulted the native speakers to improve their vocabulary inventory, to correct inaccuracies or to gain new language expressions; and 5) due to the different nature of the languages they were learning, each subject had a diverse view on grammar and language interference. In pedagogical implication, teachers could foster students’ willingness to learn with either instrumental motivation, i.e. by raising awareness of the benefit of foreign language ability, or with integrative motivation, i.e. by raising students’ interest in the culture or people whose language was being studied. Besides, language learners, or language teachers, might reflect on this research to complement formal-classroom learning with a large degree of informal-independent learning.

Finding Opportunities in Uncertain Times. The Case Study of a Tourist Guides Venture in the EU

In times of uncertainty, new ideas, concepts and business solutions are born. The crisis caused by the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a wide impact on the tourism sector, from small-scale to multinational companies. Based on an explanatory case study of a tourist guides venture, the paper seeks evidence on how conditions such as social capital, the use of information technologies and the application of new organizational solutions can support entrepreneurship at times of crisis. The paper provides insight into the functioning of Guides without Borders—a venture bringing together over 50 tourist guides. The research is based on the case study methodology supported by semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. Findings indicate that despite harsh times, social ties, trust and technology can leverage an organization. The research also confirms that the application of an innovative approach to the organizational structure and processes (in accordance with the concept of teal organizations) is beneficial at times of crisis. Thus, the organizational approach adapted by the studied organization can serve as an example for future tourist guides and other professionals’ undertakings in uncertain times.

Training of the future tourist guides for intercultural communicative interaction within professional activity

This study argues for the significance of the cultural approach to the professional training of the future tourist guide for intercultural communicative interaction. Notably, meeting the constantly growing needs of the tourist market consumer is a pressing issue. It is emphasised that the professional training of a specialist in this field should be focused on providing a high quality theoretical and practical training for a specialist to be ready for professional and communicative interaction with consumers of tourist services. Intercultural communication is seen as a purposeful connection between different cultures, which performs an exchange of information, cultural and spiritual value through professional activities to meet the needs of tourists, while taking into account the uniqueness of every culture. When interacting with the audience, the guide uses methods of pedagogical influence, which are based on didactic principles (scientific, ideological, connection with real life, accessibility, system, responsiveness and persuasiveness). They define the content, organisation and methods of educating tourists during the excursion, regardless of them being children or adults. The excursion method is the basis of the tour and is a compilation of the ways for the guide to share the knowledge and tourists’ reception of this knowledge.

Review: Educación y divulgación del patrimonio arqueológico

A popular proverb states ‘Don't play with your food’. This maxim that not only concerns those of us who have the immense fortune of dedicating our working hours (and more if possible) to the noble discipline of archaeology and historical research. If anything is really clear to us, it is that Heritage (from the perspective of investigation, safeguard and management) is more than the ‘food’ of a couple of professors and four tourist guides, but of many thousands whose income depends on it essentially through tourism. In fact, tourism in Spain in 2019 before the pandemic yielded 154,487 million Euros to the economy, representing 12.4% of its GDP. In fact, dear reader, please reflect on what drives you to go on vacation? And what leads you to choose one tourist destination over another? The response is simple: diversity. It represents a search for something that is unknown where you reside, something unique and unrepeatable that is only found at a particular destination, a unique setting offering an aesthetic or gastronomic experience that otherwise would not be worth the visiting. This book under review delves precisely into the question of this diversity we seek when traveling as it is Heritage (either material or intangible, artistic, monumental, archaeological or natural) that gives an identity to each city, each community. Heritage renders them different from other neighbouring cities. From a material point of view, Heritage is what attracts tourists and, even more, from a sentimental point of view, it is what offers signs of identity to locals. Thus in the end we are not only talking about ‘things to eat’.