In order to reduce risks for international tourists during and after a disaster, local governments must adopt an integrative, multilingual communication strategy. However, creating effective communication tools and reaching a wide range of tourism sector actors can present financial and collaborative challenges. This research, conducted in the popular tourism destination cities of Kyoto, Japan and Hoi An, Vietnam, sought to identify disaster information perceptions of international tourists and the shortcomings of existing disaster communication strategies in the two cities. Research methods included tourist surveys, assessment workshops, and key informant interviews. Based on analysis of the data using the Laswell Communication Model, the researchers identified exclusion of vital tourism actors such as tour guides and small-scale lodging management from communication networks for Kyoto and a lack of multilingual tools and strategies in Hoi An as issues that could be addressed using existing resources, including local multilingual volunteers.
The article analyzes the multimodal representations of hosts in online travel reviews (OTRs) about Bangkok and what these representations tell us about power relations reflected and potentially shaped by the reviews. Following Hollinshead's conclusions on the worldmaking agency of tourism, I argue that user-generated tourism discourse can produce and reproduce particular representations of people and contribute to shaping power relations in the tourism industry. One of the aspects critically discussed by researchers is the representation of hosts in promotional and media tourism discourse. Hosts tend to be excluded or represented as servants, cultural markers, or a part of the scenery, which might contribute to maintaining client-servant attitudes and even lead to discrimination against hosts. Surprisingly, there is a lack of research on user-generated genres such as OTRs. Moreover, previous research indicates that there can be differences in the representations of destinations with different sociocultural backgrounds. The aim of this article is therefore to conduct a systematic analysis of the multimodal representations of hosts in 300 Tripadvisor OTRs about Bangkok. I applied a corpus-assisted multimodal discourse analysis approach to identify patterns in the representations in titles, texts, images, and captions. The results indicate that user-generated tourism discourse (UGTD) possesses worldmaking power in that it not only reproduces the representations of institutional discourse but also expresses resistance to the discourse of the inferiority of hosts and contributes to establishing more balanced power relations in tourism. The findings also demonstrate that the sociocultural background of the travel destination can be reflected in representations of hosts in UGTD. The topics specific to the sociocultural background of Bangkok are the titulation of hosts, portrayal of host trainers as mentors and friends, representation of monks as tourist attractions, and generic representation of Thai artists.
This research challenges stereotypical media portrayals of Iran by analyzing YouTubers who construct counternarratives of the country as a travel destination. We introduce the concept of the "antisystemic gaze," a social media phenomenon where user-generated content offers alternative perspectives that contrast with mainstream Western media. Drawing upon Urry's seminal work on the tourist gaze, the antisystemic gaze encompasses a counternarrative of Iran on social media as it challenges mainstream Western media's representations that have long portrayed the country negatively. Employing a blend of netnography and narrative analysis, we examine how YouTubers' identity construction, shaped by personal experiences and alternative media consumption, influences their representation of Iran. This study reveals that YouTubers, acting as social media influencers, become gatekeepers, shaping audience perceptions through their narratives. The findings demonstrate the power of social media to dismantle stereotypes and promote positive images of marginalized destinations. They also offer valuable insights for destination marketing organizations by highlighting how influencers, with their autonomous perspectives, can shape travel decisions. The study also presents novel methodological insights, employing a blend of netnography and narrative analysis as underpinning "way of knowing."
The study is aimed at a better understanding of social interactions in package tours by identifying (1) forms of social interactions among tourists and between tourists and tour guides; (2) factors influencing these interactions; and (3) the importance and performance of these forms of interactions contributing to tourists' tour experience. Using a mixed-method approach, combining interviews, field observations, and a questionnaire survey administered to Vietnamese package tourists (n = 618), the study identified 10 common forms of social interactions between tourists and 8 common forms between tourists and tour guides. The majority of tourist-to-tourist interactions were found to be social oriented, while most tourist-to-tour guide interactions were service oriented. Factors influencing these interactions are tour guide performance and situational factors of the tours. Drawing on the results of the importance-performance analysis, the identified forms were categorized into four dimensions that reflect their roles in enhancing tourists' tour experiences. The study's findings significantly contribute to the literature on social interactions and tourist experience cocreation and offer valuable practical implications for tourism marketing and management practitioners to foster a safer and more meaningful environment during tours in the postpandemic era.
Nonverbal behaviors provide cues that illuminate the literal meaning of words, convey emotions, and help build rapport with others. This study explores how hotel trainees perceive nonverbal communication in hotel service encounters (HSEs). The purposively selected sample for this study consists of 12 student-trainees undergoing training in five-star hotel service encounters in Jordan. They were interviewed to gather their views on polite nonverbal behaviors in HSEs. The findings revealed that the trainees consider nonverbal channels as crucial as verbal behaviors. Elements such as smiles, eye contact, tone of voice, gazing, and posture instill confidence in guests, indicating the trainees' attention, care for the guests, and eagerness to provide excellent service. The trainees' responses reflected a range of beliefs influenced by Arabic social conventions and Islamic religious ideologies of polite behavior. Additionally, the trainees emphasized the importance of maintaining lubricant and impersonal relationships by paying attention to each other's faces.
