Guiding the path to sustainable tourism development: Investigating the role of tour guides within a social exchange theory paradigm

Abstract

Tour guides are essential to the tourism industry, acting as leaders, mediators, and facilitators of socio-cultural, economic, and environmental exchanges. Beyond enhancing tourist experiences, they play a pivotal role in sustainability by educating tourists, promoting conservation, and encouraging industry adoption of sustainable practices. While existing research acknowledges these roles, it lacks a systematic understanding of how tour guides function within multi-stakeholder systems to drive sustainable tourism development. This study addresses this gap by applying Social Exchange Theory (SET) to examine how tour guides foster reciprocity, trust, mutual benefit, and power balance among tourists, local communities, industry actors, and policymakers. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 15 state-certified tour guides in Turkey, the study develops a novel conceptual framework that reconceptualizes tour guides as central agents of multilateral social exchanges in sustainable tourism. By extending SET beyond traditional dyadic interactions, this research advances theoretical discourse on tourism intermediation and provides practical insights for leveraging tour guides’ influence in sustainability efforts.