A mixed methods research study on occupational safety and health of tour guides

ABSTRACT

Tour guiding is a profession that involves intensive one-to-one communication with tourists and employees from different sectors of the tourism industry along with long trips by bus, walks in different geographical and weather conditions, and overnight stays away from home. Under these conditions, tour guides (TGs) face serious risks in terms of work-related accidents (WRA) and work-related ill-health (WRIH) which may result from unsafe behaviours (UB) or unsafe conditions (UC). This study evaluates occupational safety and health (OSH) problems experienced by TGs and merges the findings of both the survey and focus group (FG) as part of Mixed Methods Research (MMR) to gain a better understanding. The explanatory sequential design was conducted with first quantitative and then qualitative research. According to the MMR results WRA-Type and Prevention were confirmed, WRIH-Reason was expanded in FG interviews. However, for the survey and FG findings, WRA-Reason and WRIH-Type are contradictory.

KEYWORDS:

• Occupational safety and health
• work-related accidents
• work-related ill health
• tour guide

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).