Local Tour Guides Research Articles

Cultural Tourism Potentials of the Dorze Village, Southern Ethiopia

This paper aims to present and discuss the potential tourism resources of Dorze village in southern Ethiopia. The research was conducted in 2018 through qualitative methods. Field data were collected by field observation and interviews with tourists, local community, local tourism experts, local tour guides, as well as local potters’ and weavers’ association members. Thematic analysis technique was used and the results were qualitatively described with some supporting photographs. The findings of the study revealed that Dorze village is endowed with worthwhile cultural tourism attractions. The Dorze handcraft tradition such as hand weaving, pottery work, and elephant-shaped house building, cultural festivals, traditional music and instruments, and the process of making food from false banana trees and culinary experiences are identified as the most important cultural tourism resource of the village. On the other hand, lack of tourism infrastructures such as road, bank, water, and electric power supply is identified as a stumbling block for cultural tourism development of the area. Besides, the lack of accommodations provision is identified as the other bottleneck of tourism development in the area. The research suggests that local and national tourism stakeholders need to work on local cultural tourism resources to increase the cultural tourism significance in Dorze village.

Potensi Daya Tarik Wisata Hidden Canyon Beji Guwang Di Desa Guwang, Gianyar Sebagai Daya Tarik Wisata Minat Khusus

This study aimed to determine the potential of the Hidden Canyon Beji Guwang tourist attraction as a special interest tourist attraction in terms of the 4A tourist attraction component. This research used a qualitative descriptive approach and SWOT analysis. The data collection in this study was collected by using a literature study due to limited space in the middle of the Covid-19. Beji Guwang Hidden Canyon Tourism Attraction has the potential to be used as a special interest in a tourist attraction. Natural tourism with interesting beauty becomes a tourist attraction. Tourists can do many activities, such as trekking along the river, local resident’s housing, and plantations. The access to the Hidden Canyon Beji Guwang is quite easy to reach by land transportation modes. Supporting tourism facilities provided to fulfill the needs of tourists. Although it has the potential to be a special interest tourist attraction, Hidden Canyon Beji Guwang's tourist attraction still has some obstacles, such as lack of knowledge of foreign languages by local tour guides in delivering information to foreign tourists. Keywords: Hidden Canyon Beji Guwang, Special Interest Tourism

Towards meaningful co-creation: a study of creative heritage tourism in Alentejo, Portugal

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the impact of co-creation in the context of heritage tourism. By examining co-creative strategies that promote participative interpretation of archaeological heritage, the emphasis is on understanding how tour guides balance tourists’ individual interpretations and the scientific narrative. The study conducts a qualitative analysis of the tour guiding activity of cultural tourism companies in Alentejo, Southern Portugal. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with local tour guides and from online reviews of archaeological tours in Alentejo. Findings evidence that despite widely employing co-creative strategies for heritage interpretation that tap into tourists’ operant resources and encourage creative discussion, tour guides often dismiss individual interpretations in favour of the established authorized heritage discourse. It is argued that, in doing so, the potential of co-creation for delivering a meaningful experience is hindered. The study contributes towards a critical conceptualization of the use of co-creation strategies in heritage tourism, with particular focus on the implications at deeper meaning-making levels. In practice, the findings can lead cultural tourism providers to reassess their approach to personalization in order to increase their appeal to potential clients holding alternative sets of beliefs and motivations.

THE STRUGGLE OF SYMBOLIC CAPITAL IN RUSSIAN TOURIST MARKET OF BALI TOURISM

A professional tour guide is regarded as a front-liner of the tourism and the ambassador of his/her country. Therefore, the performace of a tour guide is very important as a quality assurance of services in order to fulfill the tourists’ satisfaction. One of the important things to satisfy the tourists is through mastering the language, because if the tour guide speaks the language fluently and accurately, the commucation will be well maintained and all information can be successfully delivered. In this case, mastering Russian language, which is categorized into one of the latest foreign languages in the tourism business of Bali, is deemly needed by the Russian tourists in order to get sufficient information about the culture of the indigenous community. This study aimes at investigating the mastery level of the tour guide’s Russian language related to the struggle of symbolic capital between foreign representatives and local tour guides. By applying a descriptive qualitative research, the data was collected through observation, interview, and document review. The theory used to undertake this study is Bourdieu’s social practice theory which involves capital, habitus, and field. The data that has been classified is analyzed by qualitative descriptive method with an inductive-metodological paradigm which is seting up the discussion from particular principles to the general in order to obtain a conclusion. The result of data analys is presented by formal and informal method. The study reveals that the mastery of Russian language for a professional tour guide has been proven to compete with foreign tour guides in preserving the Balinese culture and empowering local community in tourism participation.
 Keywords: Russian language, professional tour guide, capital symbolic.

A behaviour-based typology of travellers using an online travel marketplace

ABSTRACT This study examines how different types of travellers use an online travel marketplace in different ways. To measure different travelling behaviours, we use 20 features collected from a survey of 2,467 users along with real transaction data in the context of an online marketplace connecting local tour guides and travellers. We identify six idiosyncratic groups of travellers: Shopaholics, Budget Explorers, Long-Term Travellers, Trend Setters, Resort Addicts, and Social Trippers. They are remarkably distinctive in their demographic characteristics, travel motivations, and their actual usage patterns in the online travel marketplace. This paper contributes to the literature on traveller segmentation and practices through its exploration of different traveller usage patterns in the online travel marketplace.

On a Walking Tour to No Man’s Land: Brokering and Shifting Narratives of Violence in Trench Town, Jamaica

Tourists who visit Trench Town are drawn in by the neighborhood’s rich musical heritage. They want to see the birthplace of reggae and witness the circumstances depicted in many famous Jamaican songs. Knowingly venturing into marginalized territory, into the “ghetto,” travelers expect to encounter spectacular forms of violence. Yet what the walking tour of Trench Town reveals is an experience of another kind, an excursion that exposes poverty as structural violence, and that points to the historical and political struggles that are constitutive of the area’s social fabric. In this article, drawing on an ethnographic vignette of a walking tour that starts in Bob Marley’s rehearsal grounds and ends by an empty plot locally known as “No Man’s Land,” I focus on the entanglements of violence and tourism and present the discrepancy that exists between touristic desires and the reality of the tourism commodity. This analysis reveals how residents of Trench Town simultaneously choose to address and disregard different (un)spectacular forms of violence during the tourism encounter and I argue that in so doing, local tour guides productively leverage violence to denounce and grapple with structural and historical brutalities.

Prevailing motives for creating Ottoman heritage packaged tours in Macedonia

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates the travel agencies’ decision-making process in creating specific packaged tours. The main focus is the analysis of prevailing motives and the subsequent creation of tourist flows. Arranged packaged tours based on cultural heritage in Macedonia dating from the Ottoman period served as a testing ground for a flow analysis. We employed the demand-based Saint Gallen Destination Management (SGDM) model to reconstruct the visitor flows. The data were collected through interviews conducted with local tour guides who offer specifically tailored Ottoman heritage in Macedonia prearranged tours. The main study findings suggest that limited time for travel and sightseeing was the prevailing motive for the development of the current route flow, followed by price as an additional factor. By focusing on the fundamental factors, the main contribution of this paper is to obtain a better understanding of the current structure of the Ottoman heritage routes at both local and national level. From a practical perspective, based on the identified potential of the Ottoman heritage sites, the study recommends designing new routes, as well as urging more proactive attitude among tourism policymakers.

The ability to speak English of the local tour guides for promoting tourism at the Aceh Tsunami Museum

This research aimed to find out the English language proficiency of the local tour guides at the Aceh Tsunami Museum, Aceh, Indonesia, and the difficulties that they faced in communicating with foreign tourists in English. A quantitative and qualitative descriptive research design was utilized to collect data in which an English proficiency test and an interview were used as instruments. The research subjects were 13 local guides working in the Aceh Tsunami Museum. Based on the results from this research, it was found that virtually all the participating tour guides were in the categories of very good, good and average. However, they still experienced problems with several aspects of speaking EFL, such as expressing ideas verbally, poor collocations i.e. incorrect or inappropriate word choices, poor pronunciation, and lack of confidence when speaking English. It is expected that the results from this research will become a useful input for the management of English Education institutions for improving their instructional systems and for tour guides to continue learning and developing their communication skills, especially their oral English communication skills.

Problematika Pengembangan Potensi Wisata Subak Sebagai Agrowisata Di Subak Anggabaya Kelurahan Penatih Kota Denpasar


 This study aims to determine the obstacles in developing Subak Anggabaya as Agro tourism in Denpasar City. Data collection techniques used in this study are observations, interviews, and documentation studies, with data analysis techniques using Internal Factor Analysis (IFAS) and External Factor Analysis (EFAS) analysis techniques to identify obstacles in developing of Subak Anggabaya as Agro Tourism in the City Denpasar.
 The result of this research stated that the barriers in the development of Subak Anggabaya as agro tourism are the absence of formal management from institutions such as POKDARWIS (tourism related group in village community); the lack of awareness from the community about tourism potentialities in their area; the community has not been able to take significant steps/approaches in developing the tourism potentialities in their place; the absence of local tour guides; the similarity in developing new tourist attractions and the issues of land alteration that may threaten the existence of Subak Anggabaya.
 
 Keywords: obstacles, Internal Factor, External Factor of Agro Tourism, Subak Anggabaya
 
 

Factors of Intermarriage in Tourist Destinations: Case Study of Yangshuo

Host-guest relationship in tourist destinations is a type of cross-cultural communication in nature, within which intermarriage is the most significant form of interaction and communication. Intermarriage refers to inter-ethnic and transnational marriage, which was seldom studied in tourism contexts compared with one-night stands (hereafter referred to as “ONSs”) and love affairs in tourist destinations. In Yangshuo, intermarriage is a unique phenomenon as these couples are more than those of other counties with approximate population. The reasons why intermarriage exists in Yangshuo are the questions of the study. Ethnographic research paradigm and qualitative analyses are applied in the study with particular research methods such as participating observation and in-depth interview etc. More than 70 interviewees are interviewed in the field trip of 140 days in the case. Conclusions are as follows: 1) cultural capital is the main attraction, which consists of physical attraction, language proficiency in English and cultural image in personality, 2) Yangshuo is a unique destination whose external factors, such as countryside landscape, low consumption rate, friendly local tour guides and cross-cultural tourist products and comprehensive communities, facilitate intermarriage. Theories such as cultural capital, social adaption and mobility are involved in conclusion and discussion.

English for Tour Guide: A Need Analysis of a Contextual-Based Language Teaching

This paper reports the results of need analysis of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) for local tour guides in two villages in Buleleng regency. This research is a descriptive qualitative study involving 56 tour guides, in which 30 were based in Ambengan village and 26 others were posted in Sambangan village. There were three instruments applied to obtain the research data such as observation sheet, questionnaire, and interview guide. Findings from the observation showed that the two villages had waterfalls and terraced rice fields as the main potencies. Additionally, the questionnaire specifying the target need showed that both groups had low speaking skill (56.05%) even the rest of them (43.95%) understood English, but was not able to speak English at all. Furthermore, they all required oral English, speaking (69%) and listening (24.5%). Seen from learning need, they demanded conversation (90.5%) as the most important learning experience. The results from interview proved that 92.5% local guides had no academic background in English. From those findings, it can be summed up that they need contextual-based English learning to accomplish their jobs in a more professional way through non formal education.

Using Web-application in Training to Enhance Oral English Proficiency of the Local Tour Guides in Southern Thailand

The aim of this study is to enhance oral English proficiency of the local tour guides in Southern Thailand by using a web-application. The web application which served local needs was designed and used as a tool to promote teaching speaking skills for the tour guides’ training course. Quasi experimental research using one group pretestposttest design was employed. The result shows that after attending the training course, oral English proficiency of the local tour guides significantly increased. Most of the tour guides were satisfied with the course and teaching practices which promoted oral English proficiency that can be adapted for ESP classes and training courses in other parts of Thailand and beyond.

An Application of Project-Based Learning on the Development of Young Local Tour Guides on Tai Phuan’s Culture and Tourist Attractions in Sisatchanalai District, Sukhothai Province

<p><em>This paper presents an investigation of a research entitled, “ An Application of Project-based Learning on the Development of Young Local Tour Guides on Tai Phuan’s Culture and Tourist Attractions in Sisatchanalai District, Sukhothai Province. It was intended to develop young local tour guides on Tai Phuan’s culture and tourist attractions in Sisatchanalai, Sukhothai Province. The study explored the improvement in students’ communicative ability and examined to what extent the students revealed both positive and negative attitudes towards project-based learning. The study also aimed to develop a set of recommendations for future practice in project-based learning in Thai educational institutions. The research was conducted in classroom of 50 grade 10 students with purposive sampling of Muangchalieng School in Sisatchanalai, Sukhothai Province. </em><em><em></em></em></p><p><em>The questionnaire aimed to evaluate the students’ satisfaction of the methodology called project-based learning in terms of their attitude in English language development and the practice of young local tour guides. A focus-group interview with each group provided in-depth information regarding their learning and provided ideas for a set of recommendations for future practice. It is anticipated that the information gained from this study will benefit both the teachers in their choices of suitable methodologies and students’ outcomes with the respect to improved competency in their skills in English and increased confidence in project-based learning in small groups.</em><em><em></em></em></p>

Training of Local Community Youth in Dahshur, Egypt, as Local Tour Guides and Heritage Guardians

In an attempt to shift the strategy in Egypt toward sustainable heritage tourism a project was designed aiming to (1) integrate the archaeological site with local natural and rural heritage resources, (2) increase local awareness, (3) engage local community in a scheme of heritage economic development, and (4) valorize of Dahshur as a special tourist destination. The pilot project was implemented in Dahshur, which is a part of the World Heritage Site-Memphis and its Necropolis. The project included a training program for local tour guides who were introduced to (1) of how to become a tour guide, (2) Introduction to archaeological, natural, and rural resources of the area, and (3) the basic elements of cultural heritage management. Another program was devoted to enhance the awareness of local youths of the significance and values of the heritage resources in their vicinity, and to encourage them to take part in protecting and conserving heritage at risk from looting, neglect, and a transformation of local traditional dwellings. Without such programs, no measures for protecting Egyptian heritage, now in great danger, and promote sustainable tourism will succeed given that local communities are at present marginalized and excluded from the management of Egyptian heritage resources.

Shifting values of ‘primitiveness’ among the Zafimaniry of Madagascar: an anthropological approach to tourist mediators' discourses

This article studies the origins, the production and the ambivalent uses of a ‘primitive narrative' about the Zafimaniry of Madagascar. The analysis focuses on tourism mediators’ discourses and how they are challenged by the actual tourists' experiences; it is based on participant observation, interviews and web analysis. From national tour operators to local tour guides, the mediators' communicative staging of the Zafimaniry recalls and broadens the notion of ‘primitiveness’, using it as an element of fascination and nostalgia. However, the actual tourists' experience questions this perspective, responding with a ‘philanthropic’ narrative, a desire to engage in action and relieve from poverty. Both discourses reveal however of a comparative nature and stem from the same logic: a way of ‘meeting the Other’ from a Western perspective.

Selling Strategies and Shopping Behavior—An Example of Taiwanese Guided Package Tourists to Mainland China Destinations

China has become the most visited destination in the world for international tourists. The number of Taiwanese tourists going to China on guided tours has increased; “shopping” and “optional tours” are the two most controversial consumption experiences for them due to price competition. This study aims to investigate the Taiwanese guided package tourists’ shopping intentions and behavior when traveling in China and also to examine how their shopping behaviors are influenced by sales representatives, local tour guides, and other tour participants. This study found that benefits sought, perceived sympathy, and social acceptance are often used by service providers to persuade tour participants to buy. It is expected that the study can contribute to tourism industry theory, and help the travel industry to improve the quality of guided package tours to China.

The sanitization of colonial history: authenticity, heritage interpretation and the case of Macau's tour guides

Macau was founded by the Portuguese in the mid-sixteenth century. The centuries of colonial rule that preceded its recent return to China gave it a distinctive character unique in China. The tangible and intangible imprint of the colonial history of Macau is central to its attractiveness as a cultural tourism destination. A literature review reveals worldwide examples of the manipulation of history for both political and tourism purposes. This research uses in-depth thematic interviews with 14 local tour guides to show how Macau's colonial heritage is presented and interpreted to tourist groups by the local tour guides, as regards both what they are shown and what they are told. It is found that the guides adjust their interpretation to the geographical origin of the tourists in a significant way; in particular, they tend to almost totally eschew any reference to its colonial history when addressing a Chinese audience, in contrast to the interpretation presented to non-Chinese visitors. The use of Hall's three-fold interpretative message framework (dominant – hegemonic/negotiated/oppositional) is discussed, as is Langer's concept of mindless and mindful tourists. Some consequences for the sustainability of heritage tourism in Macau are also explored.

Tourism and cosmopolitanism: a view from below

Based on long-term fieldwork in Indonesia and Tanzania, this article sheds new light on the contested relationship between tourism and cosmopolitanism. The ethnographic findings shift the attention from tourists to key service providers as those accruing most cosmopolitan capital through the tourism encounter. Local tour guides are able to use their privileged contacts with foreign visitors to develop cross-cultural competencies and to enhance their own cosmopolitan status. They substantiate the idea that cosmopolitanism is no privilege of the rich and well-connected and that physical or spatial mobility is not a necessary condition to become cosmopolitan. Paradoxically, the guides' dreams of becoming more cosmopolitan (and more modern and Western) can only materialise if they represent to tourists their lifeworld, including themselves, as frozen in both time and space, because it is exactly this kind of imaged and imagined difference tourism sells to tourists for the build-up of their own cosmopolitan capital.

“Enough stories!”Asian tourism redefining the roles of Asian tour guides1

Aujourd’hui, les guides touristiques sont des acteurs-cles dans la mediation des tensions entre les processus de localisation et de globalisation. En se basant sur une recherche de terrain menee a Yogyakarta, en Indonesie, cet article montre comment les guides javanais adaptent leurs pratiques pour servir au mieux leurs clients asiatiques. a travers un examen anthropologique du secteur touristique de Yogyakarta en general, et de l’activite des guides touristiques en particulier, cet article illustre comment l’augmentation du nombre de touristes d’origine asiatique redefinit les roles habituellement devolus aux guides selon la litterature scientifique. Les donnees empiriques montrent que, parallelement aux reorientations de leurs routines que les guides javanais mettent en place pour s’adapter a ce qu’ils percoivent comme les interets et les sensibilites asiatiques, des dynamiques structurelles plus larges contribuent aussi a faconner leurs rencontres avec les touristes asiatiques. Ces differents points reaffirment finalement que le tourisme d’origine asiatique faconne, mais est aussi faconne par les modeles, les discours et les imaginaires dominants du tourisme international.

Envisioning Eden: A glocal ethnography of tour guiding

Title of the dissertationEnvisioning Eden: A glocal ethnography of tour guidingSupervisorProf. Dr. Sandra T. Barnes and Prof. Dr. Peggy R. SandayInstitution awarding the Ph. D. DegreeUniversity of Pennsylvania (USA)Date of defence21st May 2008Goal and objectives of the dissertationUsing international tourism as an analytical and ethnographic entry, this study explores the intricate ways in which local to global processes intersect, overlap, and clash. Destinations worldwide are adapting themselves to the homogenizing standards of global tourism while at the same time trying to maintain, or even increase, their local distinctiveness. Central to these deeply intertwined processes are tourism imaginaries, understood as representational systems that mediate reality and form identities, and their (re)production by local tour guides, key agents in the selling and telling of natural and cultural heritage. This study addresses the following issues: (1) the representation of peoples and places in globally circulating tourism imaginaries; (2) the perceived, officially sanctioned, and actual roles of local tour guides in this representational practice; (3) the formal schooling and informal learning of guides to appropriate images and discourses of tourism; (4) the (re)production and contestation of fashionable tourism imagery in guiding narratives and practices; and (5) the ways in which dominant imaginaries and personal imaginations of tourism stakeholders are (dis)connected.MethodologyThis study draws on 25 months of multi-sited and multi-temporal fieldwork in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and Arusha, Tanzania. The methodology used, labelled as "glocal ethnography", involves a mixed-methods approach including extensive observation, interviews, questionnaires, and the collection of secondary data.ResultsThe comparative and discourse-centred analysis of the data reveals how local guides in Yogyakarta and Arusha act as "mechanics of glocalization", assuring the continued circulation and localization of tourism fantasies, but also using the encounter with foreigners to foment their own imaginations of "paradise on earth" and to accumulate cosmopolitan knowledge.Theoretical conclusionsThis study exemplifies how a combination of discourse-centred and grounded ethnographic analysis allows us to go beyond mere description, and unpack some of the mechanics behind complex global processes. Tourism, for instance, embodies not only physical phenomena but relates also to imagination, social contexts, and to the process of making sense of practice and place. Local tour guides, key actors in facilitating the tourist experience, act as mechanics of glocalization, performing partially as actors of hegemonic forces well beyond their reach. They are part of an expansive but loosely structured system of global tourism that represents peoples and places in predefined and scripted ways. Guides in destinations as diverse as Jogja and Arusha are facing converging professional roles, rules, and regulations and standardized planned curricula. However, local guides are also able to use their privileged contact with foreigners to nourish their dreams of escape from the harsh local life and to enhance their cosmopolitan status. They do not physically travel "abroad", giving the traditional idea of cosmopolitanism a new meaning and making them much less 'local' than their name tag suggests.Practical application of the dissertationThis research is not a mere case study illustrating or developing certain theoretical points about globalization, transnationalism, or cosmopolitanism in the context of tourism. The findings add not only to the current theorizing on tour guiding and tourism, they demonstrate the potential of glocal ethnography as a methodology to move global studies from mere description or critique to grounded holistic analyses that unravel the complex human mechanisms underlying processes of glocalization. …