Synopsis Draft #1 (Delvine, Hannah, Laura, Syairah)

1. Introduction

Tourism is defined as the business of providing tourists travel-related services such as accommodation, transport, touring packages services and entertainment (CITE). Tour guiding services are also part of tourism industry and tour guides are the front-line employees that bridges the host country and its tourists (CITE). They are responsible for providing tourists quality service and whether they are able to deliver it is essential to both the success of their tour agency and the host country they represent.

With the service industry focusing more on the experience and not just service anymore (CITE), the tour guide’s knowledge of the host country’s culture and attractions, and their service and communication skills have the power to transform the tour services into a meaningful experience (CITE). Hence, this paper will explore the ideals and service gaps of a tour, and recommendations for tour agencies and their human resources.

            1.1 Purpose statement

The objective of this paper is to suggest methods at ensuring that tour guides have proper training and quality service before giving tours. The hospitality and tourism industry is known as a challenging industry to survive in (CITE), it is important for tour guides to have a certain standard as they can affect the tour agency’s business and present a bad image to the host country.

            1.2 Thematic focus

The main theme explored in this paper is the tourism industry and how a service gap in the industry can affect a tourist’s satisfaction.

1.3 Workplace context

This report refers to the workplace context as the duration of a tour journey experience. This report will focus on how each of the five elements of the tour experience communicate:  service, place, product, process and personnel.

1.3.1 Service

Service quality is a critical factor for the success of experienced-based businesses such as tourism and hospitality (cite). How well the service is perceived to be delivered or the interactions between tourists and various service staff highly influence the outcome of the tour experience and determines the level of customer satisfaction. In the context of tour guiding, the perceived service quality of a tour guide can be evaluated through three major constructs:  (1)core  service  delivery, (2)customer orientation,  and (3)communication effectiveness (Heung,  2008). Ap  and  Wong  (2001) suggest  that the tour guide’s attitude with respect to service, product knowledge, and communication skills are significant aspects in assessing the perceived service professionalism of the tour guide.

1.3.2 Place

The destination of a tour communicates to the tourists the kind of on-site tour experience to expect. Different physical venues convey different activities and encounters that could be experienced, such as dark tourism, eco-tourism, cultural and heritage tourism, sports tourism and the like. The person in the environment goes beyond being a mere observer and interprets the interactions with the environment as well as imparting symbolic meanings (Ittelson, 1973.) These unique physical and social environments offer different experiences and affects what the person takes away from his or her experience in the environment (cite).

1.3.3 Product

In the context of a tour, the main product of a tour journey would be the destination itself as mentioned in 1.3.2 and the stimuli, adventures and experiences that it offers. Apart from the destination, other tangible products of a tour journey include recreational and entertainment facilities and amenities like food, accommodation, technology and transportation (cite?). These components affect the consumption experience of tourists and communicates the level of engagement and comfort.

1.3.4 Process

The processes involved directly affect the tourism experience and researches have reported that they positively affect the satisfaction of tourists, their level of expenditures, and their happiness. The main processes involved in a tour context involve moving people from one location to another.  

1.3.5 Personnel  

The skills and roles played by a tour guide continues to evolve to this day. Previously, tour guides are positioned as a presenter and entertainer to the tour group as the audience (cite). However, with the increasing expectations towards the tour experience, tour guides have been expected to take on  more active roles as a creative, interactive agent (Richards & Wilson, 2006 Richards, G., & Wilson, J. (2006) and co-creator of tourist spaces (Ek et al., 2008 Ek, R., Larsen, J., Hornskov, S. B., & Mansfeldt, O. K. (2008). Hence, they are not only expected to make tourist experiences entertaining and memorable, but also create interactive and personalised experiences for tourists.

2. Problem identification (Ideal - Gap - Goal)

2.1 Service Gap

Using Hannah’s real life incident as case study, we have identified three areas of service gap.

Poor Standard of Communication

Hannah had patronized a supposed famous tour agency in Vietnam that had guaranteed an English speaking tour guide. However, on the day itself, the tour guide appeared to be an amateur in English. Hannah found it difficult to understand the information that was being told.

           

Inadequate Product Knowledge

The tour guide had poor product knowledge as he did not share with the tourist the history or story behind artefacts or significant landmarks but rather stating the obvious points. This involved many unnecessary commentary given.

       

            Unprofessional Behaviour

The tour included a bike trek trail segment but during the activity, the tour guide gave little information about what was to be done or where they were heading. This exemplifies his poor customer service as he also did not bother keep at the same pace as all the tourist and  Hannah was even left behind a few times. When he set the meeting time to gather back during the free and easy, he would rush tourist up the bus although the time set has not been passed yet. The tour guide would also mentioned that they are already late when they are in fact early.

2.2 Ideal

Based on the case study above, the ideal situation would be looked into these areas.

           

Standard of Communication

As tour guides are ambassadors of their countries, it is important that they are able to convey the history and stories effectively to their guests (Altintas, Sirakaya-Turk & Sulaiman, 2016). It is ideal that the tour guide is proficient in the language that he or she is wanting to guide in. With reference to the Singapore Tourism Board as an example, they require tour guides to have a minimum grade of B4 for English in other to be qualified (Singapore Tourism Board, 2018). This also ensures that they are valid tour guide license holders in the country.

Inadequate Product Knowledge

In order to be able to sell the tour product, the tour guide has to have adequate knowledge of what they are trying to convey. With reference to the Singapore Tourism Board as an example, they require applicants to register at a tourism academy in which they would have to go through a structured programme where tourism knowledge and tour commentary is taught among other materials (Tourism Management Institute of Singapore, 2018).

            Unprofessional Behaviour

           

3. Implementation of potential solution

3.1 Storytelling

Living in the Experience Economy – an economy where customer expectations are so high, a great tour guide has to provide an experience that tourists will remember. This can be done through storytelling as it will not only brighten up boring historical facts but gets the tourist engaged too (Steeves, 2018).

According to National Storytelling Association of the United States, “Storytelling is the art of using language, vocalization, and/or physical movement and gestures to reveal the elements and images of a story to a specific, live audience” (McWilliams, 1997s).
For decades of years, stories have been they way of communications for humans. Stories are used to connect between an effective speaker to audiences. Education around the world have been using ‘case studies’ to teach students.

3.2 Human Resource Practices

An appropriate HR practices will result in tour guide’s role behaviours and linked to the success of delivering a quality service (Schuler and Jackson, 1987). HRM should provide a range of courses and trainings to enhance the quality of services provided to tourists. However, selecting the right people for the job would ease the process in the beginning.

4. Benefits

The above proposed solutions are aimed to increase customer satisfaction. By highlighting the importance of good customer service, this results in various beneficial outcomes in the workplace.

           

4.1 Increase in Customer Loyalty

Customers are willing to pay more when they see the value in the brand name (Investopedia, 2018). This is because customer service can be associated as a branding tool (Vickery, 2017). Therefore when good customer service is given, customers feel valued and are likely to return back for more business or spread the word about the business which results in more profits for the company.

           

4.2 Better Impression of the Country

As the tour guides are ambassadors of the country, bad customer service will leave a bad impression of the locals. This channel of interaction allows tourist to communicate and observe how the natives are like in terms of culture and character. Therefore with good customer service given, it lays a better impression in terms of hospitality. This would create a more inviting environment for tourist to remember the country by.

5. Research methods

6. Conclusion