Evaluating a Mindfulness Training Program for Chinese Tour Guides

Distinguishing between tour guide performance and professionalism is crucial for understanding their distinct contributions to fostering visitor sustainable behavior. Therefore, this study aims to explore the moderating role of the tour guide’s professionalism in the relationship between visitor experience, satisfaction, and sustainable behaviour. It also examines the impact of the tour guide’s performance on sustainable behaviour through the mediating role of visitors’ experiences and satisfaction. To test the proposed conceptual framework, we ran a PLS-SEM analysis on 249 visitors. Drawing on expectancy disconfirmation theory (EDT), the findings show that tour guide performance encourages sustainable visitor behaviour, improves their experience, and achieves satisfaction. Besides, tour guide professionalism amplifies these effects, highlighting its crucial function in fostering positive outcomes through experience, satisfaction, and enduring conduct. Our findings present significant implications for the tourism industry decision-makers, travel agents, tour operators, and tour guides in particular, as well as the research community.

Tour guides are important tourism stakeholders who undertake roles in transferring tourism to future generations, using resources efficiently, minimising the destruction of natural areas and ensuring sustainability in tourism. Based on this, the main purpose of the study is to determine the roles of tour guides within the scope of their tours regarding the socio-cultural, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable tourism. In addition to the main goal of the study, the aim is to uncover the practices of tour guides on tours and their awareness of sustainable tourism. The research data were collected from a total of twenty-six participants working as tour guides between 5 March-16 April, 2024, through an e-interview form. The deductive thematic analysis of the data obtained in the research was carried out using the MAXQDA 2024 software program. As a result of the research, it was revealed that tour guides undertake various roles such as educator/instructor, environmental protector/ protector, and economic promoter regarding sustainable tourism. Tour guides stated that they care about protecting the natural environment of the regions visited on tours and that they are role models for tour participants in this regard. It has been determined that tour guides fulfill practices; preventing damage to historical sites, archaeological remains and findings, and the texture of the place in the socio-cultural dimension of sustainable tourism. They encourage the purchase of handicrafts and natural agricultural products produced by locals in the economic dimension, and warn people not to smoke in archaeological ruins in the environmental dimension. Tour guides' suggestions for sustainable tourism practices include organizing online or hands-on seminars.

Internet and technology development has progressed rapidly in recent years, and people have quickly adapted to this technology age. Today, besides technological developments, activities are carried out within the framework of sustainable tourism understanding. When this is the case, tourist guides need to renew themselves in sustainable tourism and digital tourism subjects. In this direction, the chapter aims to reveal the perspective of tourist guides to sustainability in tourism and digital tourism and determine the place and importance of the tourist guiding profession in digital tourism. In line with the purpose, it was deemed appropriate to take the opinions of the tour guides who are actively doing their job to reach up-to-date information. Therefore, the semi-structured interview method, one of the qualitative data collection methods, aims to collect data and contribute to the chapter on an up-to-date basis. As a result of the interviews with the tourist guides, it has been determined that the tourist guides have information about sustainability and digital tourism; with today’s technology age, the tourist guides are influenced by digital tourism and fulfill their profession within the framework of sustainable tourism understanding. Besides, it has been revealed that tourist guides are not far from digital tourism and use social media platforms and YouTube channels to promote themselves.

Purpose This study aims to investigate whether visitors’ engagement in guided tours at cultural heritage sites boosts sustainable heritage behaviors. Visitors’ environmental awareness and the role of tour guides are also investigated as moderating variables. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative study was conducted to examine data collected from 249 visitors who participated in guided tours at Egyptian cultural heritage sites. Data was analyzed using Amos 24.0. Findings Results confirm that engagement in guided tours significantly impacts visitors’ sustainable practices at cultural heritage sites. In addition, the tour guide’s role and visitors’ environmental awareness significantly moderate the previous correlation. Research limitations/implications The study used purposeful sampling to select participants from cultural heritage site visitors through travel agencies and tour guides. While this method provided valuable insights, a broader, randomly selected sample would likely yield more scalable findings. Practical implications The study implies that the tour guide must be more active in encouraging sustainable behavior among visitors in heritage sites. On the other hand, stakeholders must take action to raise awareness among visitors to promote sustainable heritage behavior. Originality/value This study provides new insights into visitor engagement in heritage sites to promote sustainable behavior, an understudied approach, especially in the heritage context. Incorporating the moderating role of tour guides and environmental awareness in the previous relationship is an area that has not been thoroughly explored in the prior research.

In the context of sustainable tourism, the part that tour guides play in influencing visitors' experiences and views has drawn a lot of attention. This study explores the crucial function of tour operators as advocates for ethical behavior in the field of sustainable tourism. The research examines how tour guides operate as change agents, encouraging sustainable practices among tourists, in light of growing concerns regarding the environmental, sociocultural, and economic implications of tourism. This chapter investigates the many duties of tour guides in sharing knowledge about sustainable tourism practices. It does so by drawing on a thorough review of academic literature and case studies. It emphasizes the significance of tour guides' capacity to persuade various tourist groups to adhere to responsible tourism's core values. Tour guides can encourage tourists to adopt more responsible behaviour by raising understanding about the local ecosystems, cultures, and social norms through engaging storytelling.

Since the 1990s, sustainable tourism development has gained attention and been adopted as a policy and planning approach by many governments around the world. However, while the concept of sustainable tourism development is widely considered integral to successful tourism development, there remain a range of problems which mitigate against positive sustainable tourism development outcomes. These include a lack of clear understanding of the key stakeholders in implementing sustainable tourism development and secondly, not all stakeholders have the same level of interest in sustainable tourism development and may be less active or not active at all. An essential element for sustainable tourism development in any tourist destination is the participation of active stakeholders and their collaborations. Among them, the tour guides play a major role but seem not to be paid attention as much as other stakeholders like the authorities, travel agencies or tourists. This paper aims at exploring the tour guides’s point of view on sustainable tourism. The primary data collection involved in-depth interviews undertaken with 10 tour guides and data were analyzed using content analysis. From the tour guide’s viewpoint, it seems like there has not been enough care and activities from other stakeholders concerning sustainable tourism. The result also shows the tour guides’s sound awareness of sustainable tourism and their environmental friendly behaviors.

The tour guide, as an interpreter, plays an important role in linking the destination and the tourists. What is the meaning of ‘interpretation’? According to Tilden (1957), interpretation is generally used for education, and the purpose of this particular education is to express the meanings and interactions between people and destinations (Weiler and Ham 2000; Ham and Weiler 2002). Interpretation differs from tour guide to tour guide, from place to place, and even between transportation types and the aims of travel (Weiler and Ham 2000; Ham and Weiler 2002). Tour quality is affected by the skill and capacity of the tour guide’s expert interpretation, performance and transfer of knowledge. Interpretation is not just a simple word, as it changes the form of communication in guided tours. Interpretation about cultural heritage is provided by print and electronic publications, public lectures, on-site and off-site installations that are directly related, educational programs, and community activities; ongoing research, training, and evaluation of the tour guide’s interpretation process itself is important. Tour guides are also representatives of sustainability. The aim of this study is to determine the role of tour guides as interpreters in sustainable cultural heritage tourism in Odunpazari. In this qualitative study, data were obtained from in-depth interviews. The tourism resources of Odunpazari were identified and compiled from secondary sources. In-depth interviews were conducted with the tour guides of Eskisehir, and the results of this study reveal that tour guides play a crucial interpretative role in transferring accurate information to supply sustainable tourism in Eskisehir. The tour guides included in this study are aware of what sustainability is, and they try their best to sustain cultural heritage tourism.

The objective of this study is to measure tourist guides’ attitude towards sustainable tourism. The research population constitute of active tourist guides, registered Trabzon Regional Chamber of Guides (TRO). Within this context, in order to put forward the tourist guides’ attitude towards sustainable tourism, Sustainable Tourism Attitude Scale (SUS-TAS) was used, which proven reliability and validity by Arslan Ayazlar (2016). The survey was carried out with 73 active tourist guide, registered TRO. Results indicated that tourist guides have a positive approach towards sustainable tourism.

The rapid development of tourism movements in recent years has brought to the fore concerns about the economic, socio-cultural, and environmental carrying capacities of tourism destinations. Sustainable tourism policies, like responsible tourism, should be adopted by countries that see the significance of building tourism around pristine natural and cultural resources. This will help to pass on their values to future generations and ensure that they continue to generate economic benefits. It is important to determine the responsible tourism perceptions of tourist guides, who are important stakeholders in the tourism industry and are conscious of the protection of the natural environment in the tours they manage. In this context, it is aimed at determining whether tourist guides' perceptions of the quality of work life have an impact on their perceptions of responsible tourism. For this purpose, first a conceptual framework was developed, and then data from the study were collected from 405 tourist guides with face-to-face surveys that contained the Work-Related Quality of Life Scale (WRQoL) and the Scale of Responsible Tourism (SRT). The study’s data were analyzed with a statistical package program and discussed in terms of descriptive and inferential statistics. As a result of the analysis, it has been determined that there is a significant relationship between the perceptions of quality of work life and the perceptions of responsible tourism of tourist guides. In addition, with the regression analysis, it was seen that quality of work life perceptions positively affected the responsible tourism perceptions of tourist guides.

The sustainable tourism approach is the way to ensure a destination’s development and protec-tion. Since there are important links between the visitor and the destination, tourist guides may contribute to the destination’s resources management and economic and socio-cultural impact. They could set a deep contact with tourists in destinations and have positive results on tourist sustainable behaviors. The aim of the study is to identify the dimensions of the roles attributed to tourist guides in the promotion of sustainable tourism and to determine the content of these roles within an exploratory perspective. In this research, the qualitative research method has been adopted in the phenomenology research design in order to reveal the meanings that tour guides have experienced. The data was obtained through deep-interviews with tourist guides and evalu-ated with descriptive analysis technique. According to the findings, the roles of the tourist guides are dimensioned as “adopting consulting role, taking over inspection, sustainability training, raising tourists’ awareness, promotion of the local economy, and sustainable tour management” within the context of sustainable tourism development. The paper indicates the contributions to the tourism literature with the determination of roles tourist guides serve in the promotion of sus-tainable tourism in detail, as limited studies have been conducted in Turkey.

The growing importance of sustainable tourism has brought attention to the factors influencing tourists' eco-friendly behaviors. This study investigates the relationships between the environmentally responsible actions of residents and tour guides, tourists' environmental attitudes, and their green consumption choices in the context of rural tourism in Quang Nam, Vietnam. Drawing upon the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework and the Theory of Planned Behavior, a quantitative survey was conducted with 320 domestic and international tourists visiting rural destinations in Hoi An. The findings, analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), reveal that both residents' and tour guides' environmentally responsible behaviors have significant positive effects on shaping tourists' environmental attitudes and promoting their green consumption. Residents' actions emerged as the strongest predictor of tourists' attitudes, followed by tour guides' behaviors. Furthermore, tourists' environmental attitudes were found to positively influence their actual green consumption choices. The study highlights the pivotal role of residents and tour guides as sustainability ambassadors in driving responsible tourist behaviors.

Within tourism studies, the movement for ‘responsible tourism’ seeks to direct tourism in support of ideals such as sustainability and human rights. Central to the promotion of such ideals, however, is the tour guide who holds a critical position influencing the orientation of a tourism encounter. This article explores the capacities of tour guides to direct tourism encounters in support of human rights. The analysis draws upon tourism and human rights literature to frame tour guides within the theoretical concept of norm translators. The analysis applies a case study approach to a case of an individual tour guide leading a Vietnam tour package under the employ of a responsible travel company supportive of human rights, with the purpose of clarifying the role of tour guides in promoting human rights and elaborating the theory of norm translators.

The main objective of this paper is to assess the impact of The Circular Game use on participants' sustainable awareness, learning and behaviour. The Circular Game is a strategy board game to learn about sustainability, improve environmental awareness, apply circular economy strategies, and train to design innovative and circular business models. Researchers will analyse changes in participants' sustainable knowledge, awareness, and behaviour before and after participation in the game with ad hoc questionnaires. The results of this analysis will allow us to test whether the emotions generated during the play-based learning process can condition their environmental awareness, learning and behaviour towards greater sustainability in the future. The game can generate emotions in participants and work teams, promote collaborative and green knowledge acquisition, and help bachelor and master students and employees apply theoretical knowledge to real-world situations. Similarly, companies and entrepreneurs need a relaxed environment to present their ideas and proposals for improvement. This methodology uses game elements in academic or working environments to stimulate and challenge participants to incorporate sustainable business choices. The Circular Game is a game in which participants compete to be the company that applies the most circular economy strategies in its business model. The groups advance through a circular board where, depending on the squares they land on, they can earn money, invest in circular economy strategies, and add or reduce CO2 emissions. The winner will be the one who has completed all the circular economy strategies set out in the game with the minimum of CO2 emissions. The social impact is substantial as it is a methodology that can be applied in any field, educational or business. The impact will be more significant if the game's objective, to be more sustainable, is translated into the participants' real lives.

PropósitoLos 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.Diseño/metodología/enfoqueLos datos consisten principalmente en 15 entrevistas en profundidad con guías tibetanos nativos. Los datos fueron analizados mediante el método de análisis de contenido.HallazgosSe 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.Implicaciones prácticasLos 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.Originalidad/valorLas 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.

The emerging peer-to-peer platforms enable individual tour guides to market themselves via online profiles. Given the growing societal interest in responsible tourism, tour guides can utilize online profiles to communicate responsible tourism endeavors that showcase positive moral character. However, how consumers respond to such expressions of responsible conduct is unknown. Through four experiments, we find that a moral self-description (vs. social or control) elicited higher elevation, further enhancing trust and enjoyment, leading to more favorable consumer responses (i.e., booking intention, willingness to pay, and likelihood to recommend). Thus, the underlying mechanisms are explained by elevation, trust, and enjoyment. Moreover, consumers' self-esteem and tour guides' motives are two boundary conditions. Specifically, positive reactions to the tour guide's morality expression are more pronounced among high self-esteem individuals and when the guide is intrinsically motivated. This research contributes to the literature on P2P tourism services and offers practical implications for tourism providers.