A Fieldtrip Approach to Study Tour Guide in Shaping Student Tourist Experience

Abstract

Given the significant values of guided tours, a study that focuses on tour guides is important. The purpose of this study is to provide a “student” account of the roles of tour guides played in influencing tourists’ perceptions of the services, overall tour experiences and intention to join future trips of similar performances. The roles can be considered as the performative practices of tour guides which refer to the embodied dedications towards the tourists by the skillful uses of communicative, social, instrumental, interactional and caring competencies and attitudes. The results can be implied to help the university improve the tour guide qualification or modify the training or curriculum requirement. This research also concludes a 3C model that emphasizes on the different facets of tour-guide roles in conditioning the cognitive functioning of the tourists in terms of perceived values of destination experiences and learning that arises, and in turn influences the attitudinal and emotional consequences of the tourists, such as manifested in destination loyalty, satisfaction and intention to join future trips of similar performances.