Tourist Intercultural Competence: A Multidimensional Measurement and Its Impact on Tourist Active Participation and Memorable Cultural Experiences

Abstract

Cultural tourism has received increasing attention. Tourists’ intercultural competence represents the abilities to appropriately and efficiently interact with people across different cultures, helping tourists attain developing positive cultural exchange experiences. By adopting both qualitative and quantitative approaches, a multidimensional measurement of tourists’ intercultural competence was developed and validated in this study. Four factors of tourists’ intercultural competence were identified: intercultural responsibility, understanding, appreciation, and action. Furthermore, this study examined the association between tourists’ intercultural competence and memorable cultural experience and determined the mediating effects of tourists’ active participation. This study contributes to the cultural tourism literature by proposing a measurement of tourists’ intercultural competences and by establishing a framework illustrating how cultural tourists interact with different cultures, thus attaining memorable cultural experiences. Managerial implications for destination marketing and tourist management are discussed herein.