Tourist Behavior and its Impact on Service Quality

The holidays are our precious times of the year. When it comes to planning our holiday we take into consideration all our dreams, needs and we try to find out the perfect match, the only limit is our budget. Tourism statistics shows that on our holidays we prefer to experience something different to our own culture. The reason behind is that if you live in cold, grey climates for most of the year and work hard at material pursuits as a release, they are periodically tempted to transfer to cultures, seduced by better climates, tastier food, exciting sounds and movement, lights, exquisite architecture, spectacular scenery and sensual environments.

After destination is chosen, comes the excitement, the preparation period. So we often make efforts to learn some basic sentences to be able to communicate on our holiday with locals.

But what about basic knowledge of local manners? According to psychologist Albert Mehrabian, of the total meaning of a spoken message, 7% comes from the actual meaning of words, 38% comes from the way you say the words (tone, emphasis, etc.), and 55% comes from facial expressions and other non-verbal communication.

And here we go. There is a high chance, according to tourism statistics, that you choose a different culture than yours.

For instance your chosen country’s society constantly works on improving the manners.

You’re a really nice person trying to talk with them in their own language but being unfamiliar with the local manners, you are breaking them constantly. Let me give you a simple example. You travel on train, you are excited as you have visited some place before and you feel like sharing your experience. As you’re happy and excited, naturally you talk loudly - this is how you do it in your home country. But you have no idea that in the country you are visiting that people are used to rest on train. You have no idea that you seriously break these borders, you steal the local’s right of resting.

However, you expect, in return, from the same person who could not rest because of your excitement and loudness, to provide you a high service level.

As the overtourism is an existing problem in many countries if we, as individuals, don’t think about our own behavior we do a lot to drop the  service level.

Quite often, different cultures are like an iceberg, with the most substantial part hidden under the water. It’s more important to swim under water and discover the bottom instead of just learning some empty sentences. According to the iceberg theory of Edward T. Hall 1973, 1976, the nonverbal communication is invisible - remember it’s 55% percent of our total communication.

By learning the culture of the country we going to visit, we surely can benefit in at least two things:
1. higher service level
2. positive perception about our country of origin

Do your best, be as much as possible humble ambassador at any situation, keeping in mind that your own behavior patterns are perceived as patterns of your home country of origin, be an influencer to create the perfect perception about your country of origin, get a service level what you deserve, wish to have.