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Special Section: Guided Tours and Tour Guiding

The professional relationship between tour guides and tour operators

ORCID Icon &
Pages 345-357 | Received 01 Feb 2016, Accepted 12 May 2017, Published online: 19 Jun 2017
 

ABSTRACT

Tour operators and tour guides are major stakeholders during production and operation of organized package tours. However, the relationship between them received little attention in tourism literature. This study intends to identify the dimensions of the relationship between the two parties and importance attained to different guiding roles both by tour operators and guides. It also explores the attitude gaps between tour operators and guides on various guiding attributes. The analyzed data were collected from 110 professional tour guides and 56 inbound tour operators. Numerous differences in perceptions were identified regarding importance attained to foreign language skills, group cohesion, holiday experience creation, entertainment, representation skills, contract compliance, image creation, itinerary compliance and identification with tour operators.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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