Title: Does the tourist's incivility relate to the tour guide's professionalism? The case of destination Zanzibar

Authors: Moh'd Juma Abdalla; Kayode Kolawole Eluwole; Ali Öztüren

Addresses: Faculty of Tourism, Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, North Cyprus, 99628, Turkey ' Faculty of Economics and Administration, Department of Regional Economics, Masaryk University, 60200, Lipova 41a, Brno, Czech Republic; Faculty of Applied Science, Department of Gastronomy, Istanbul Gelisim University, 34310, Cihangir Mah. Şehit Jandarma Komando Er Hakan Öner Sk, No. 1 Avcılar, İstanbul, Turkey ' Faculty of Tourism, Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, North Cyprus, Turkey

Abstract: As part of the service delivery process of tour operations, tour guides are often faced with rude behaviour from tourists. The present study develops a conceptual framework that empirically tests the linkages of tourist incivility (TIN), professional knowledge (TPK), professional attitude (TPA), and professional skills (TPS). Using SMART-PLS to analyse the data collected from 277 tour guides in Zanzibar, the study's findings revealed that TIN has insignificant direct effects on both tour guides' TPA and tour guides' TPK. The results also suggest that TPS mediates the impact of tourist incivility on TPK but fails to support TPA mediation. Lastly, importance-performance map analysis revealed that TPK is of utmost importance to tour guides, although it leads to slightly lesser performance behind TPS and tourist incivility. Recommendations for novel coping mechanisms for practitioners were suggested.

Keywords: professionalism; incivility; tour-guide; Zanzibar; tourist.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTP.2024.139724

International Journal of Tourism Policy, 2024 Vol.14 No.4, pp.368 - 383

Published online: 05 Jul 2024 *

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