On Tourism And Cross-cultural Communication

As a social and cultural activity, tourism plays an important role in human cultural communication. The thesis discusses the importance of tourism for world cross-cultural communication and the main barriers of communication in the circumstance of tourism. The thesis consists of three parts. Part 1 is a research on the relationship between tourism and cross-cultural communication. Tourism is proved to be a type of cross-cultural communication respectively from the angles of "cross-cultural"and "communication"on the basis of historical documents and theories of tourism. Tourists and host participate into the communication more frequently than others. International tourism is a typical cross-cultural communication. Guide-interpreters are the most important group in the communication. The significance of tourism for cross-cultural communication and its features are analyzed in part 2. Compared with other forms of cross-cultural communication, tourism is a kind of pleasant, , comprehensive, direct ,wide-ranging and superficial communication. Generally speaking, it contributes much to the communication between nations. In Part 3, cultural difference, as a chief barricade in cross-cultural communication, is discussed based on plenty of cases in tourism. Three factors influence the communication most: values, social rules and thinking modes. Chinese culture and western culture are chosen to be contrasted in three respects, one from each factor mentioned above: Group vs. individualism orientation, non-verbal etiquette and thinking of images vs. logic thinking. Ethnocentrism, stereotype and prejudice make it more difficult for people to communicate. The capability of cross-cultural communication is the key to the problem.