Cross-cultural professional communications in tourism and hospitality (3 cr)

Objective

Tourism and hospitality is a service industry, where visitors from different nationalities and cultures encounter host cultures. It is imperative to understand the influence of national cultures on their consumers in order to best serve and compete for a share of those diverse markets. As the tourism industry becomes more culturally diverse, future tourism and hospitality managers should understand their customers from different cultural backgrounds.

Content

By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- recognize the growing importance of the international and global nature of tourism and hospitality
- understand the multicultural aspects of tourism and hospitality activities and importance of studying cross-cultural aspects from the perspectives of both service providers and customers
- apply the concepts of intercultural competence, intercultural sensitivity and intercultural intelligence and their relevance for tourism and hospitality
- apply the cultural dimensions, proposed by Geert Hofstede and other experts, to provide ef?cient and effective services

Course material

Study material pages are designed to help you find the valuable learning material.
This course is carried out in a Learn educational environment. It is totally automated. It contains online material, online tests and final test. If you need to get individual counselling, you could get it online, or by meeting the teacher, pointing out the reason and the date by sending a message to the teacher.

Study forms and methods

Tourism and hospitality are service industries where visitors from different nationalities and cultures come into contact with host cultures. It is imperative, as the international market grows, to understand the influence of national cultures on their consumers in order to best serve and compete for a share of those diverse markets. As the tourism industry becomes more culturally diverse, future tourism and hospitality managers should understand their customers from different cultural backgrounds.
The course "Cross-cultural professional communication in tourism and hospitality" offers students a comprehensive guide to the influence of culture on service providers as well as on customers, affecting both the supply and the demand sides of the industry.
This online course includes self-guided online lessons, template based analysis and a development plan for a company.

RDI and work-related cooperation

While studying the course, it is possible to use the material got from your working place.

Timing of exams and assignments

All course tests are designed so, that they are opened only on a given period, which is mentioned at the topic test.
At the end of the course you will pass an online final test. Instructions you could find in Learn.

Student workload

This course is worth 3 cr. The studies are suitable for students who want to study in a flexible way – studies are carried out totally online.
A few links are provided at the course pages, but various reading material from other interesting articles obtained from newspapers, internet and other sources are welcome.

Further information

This course is carried out by Xamk Open University of Applied Sciences.
Xamk degree students cannot enroll on open UAS courses.

Evaluation scale

Approved/Failed

Assessment methods and criteria

Learning tasks:
- this course will assist students in understanding tourist behavior in a cross cultural context. Elements of values, norms and rules and their effect on tourists’ behavior, holiday expectations, experiences, satisfaction and consequently repeat visitation will be examined;
- a review of the literature on the concepts related to cross cultural tourism; the students will be able to identify and discuss the major differences between Eastern and Western national cultures and their influence on tourist and host social behavior;
- the course will allow students to see how cultural differences influence tourist holiday perceptions and satisfaction
- you will be able to respond to each market’s peculiarities and adopt appropriate regional programs also will be explored