Tour Guiding Research

Insights, Issues and Implications

By (author) Dr. Betty Weiler, Rosemary Black

Publication date:

14 October 2014

Publisher

Channel View Publications

Dimensions:

234x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781845414689

This book provides an authoritative, state-of-the-art review of tour guiding scholarship and research and aims to foster best practice and to stimulate further study and research on tour guiding across a range of disciplines. It explores how tour guiding theory and practice has evolved over time and what factors have contributed to this. The volume consolidates, synthesises and adds to the knowledge base and foreshadows how current and future trends and issues might impact on tour guiding research and practice in the 21st century. The studies reviewed in this book cover a wide range of contexts in which guided tours are conducted, ranging from city streets to heritage and wildlife tourism attractions, from high-end tourist lodging establishments to national park campgrounds, and from highly developed destinations to very remote ones in both developed and developing countries. The book is well-illustrated and its accessible style with chapter summaries makes it ideal for students as well as researchers.

1. The Historical and Political Context and Scope of Tour Guiding Research
2. The Multiple and Complex Roles of the Tour Guide
3. Tour Guides as Interpreters, Storytellers and Intercultural Communicators
4. The Contributions of Tour Guiding to Sustainability
5. Visitor Expectations of and Satisfaction with Tour Guides and Guiding Services
6. Improving Tour Guide Performance through Training and Education
7. Conceptualising and Fostering Quality in Tour Guiding
8. Implications and Future Directions for Tour Guiding Research and Practice

As a whole, this book is a valuable resource for anyone involved in guiding, and to a lesser extent, interpretation. Weiler and Black have distilled fifty years of research into a cogent and concise desk reference. They have also provided several road maps to improve the industry and the state of research. Practitioners and academics from mass tourism through ecotourism as well as multiple emerging niche markets will benefit from the resources and analyses provided in this text.