What do today's Chinese tourists expect from tour guides? A mixed-method approach to understanding the evolving guide roles

Abstract

Rapid social and economic changes and the increasing use of resourceful ICT applications, together with the emergence of “experience” centered tourism, have kept the required tour guide's roles and skills evolving. However, little research has explored how those roles have morphed over time from the traditional ones. Via a mixed-method approach - in-depth interviews (N = 16) and a questionnaire survey conducted at two phases (N = 199 + 311), this study explores today's Chinese tourists' preferred guide roles, and how those preferences affect their tour experience. Thematic analysis of the qualitative data, in addition to the exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and regression analysis were conducted. The results provide five dimensions of the preferred guide roles, including group management, information provision, consultation, positive change fostering, as well as information technology facilitation. In particular, this paper is the first to report, from the lens of package tourists, that “positive change fostering” and “ICT facilitation” are new dimensions of the guide's roles. The findings expand the genre of guides' roles in a techno-driven world. In addition, the five identified dimensions provide important references for the industry on what guiding expertise should be developed.