Guides' handling of multiple roles in interactions with tourists: The prism of impression management

Abstract

Tour guides undertake multiple roles and may face role conflicts when interacting with tourists. A framework of impression management based on dramaturgical theory provides an insight into the inner mechanisms behind how tour guides deal with multiple role dilemmas. This situation is examined in interactions between local Chinese tour guides and Chinese group tourists in a walking-tour-shopping context in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Through observations and interviews, we find that the interplay of a moving stage and guides' role-shifting between being a Chinese sibling, a local and a cultural interpreter delivers authoritative and reliable impressions to tourists, and thus conceal their conflicting role as a shopping broker. We further refine the inner mechanism, which contributes to existing literature on tour guides' multiple-role practices. Our research also enriches the explanatory power of Goffman's framework by explaining a complex situation with multiple role dilemmas amidst a moving working stage in interactive studies. • Impression management provides an insight into how tour guides perform roles. • Local tour guides overcome role conflicts when interacting with tourists. • Delivering stable and positive role impressions to tourists is crucial. • The less legitimate role is concealed under sustained positive impressions. • The interplay between role shifting and a moving stage renders this possible.