An Investigation Into Hainan Hotel Workers’Intercultural Communicative Competence

Based on intercultural communicative competence theory of Wiseman, this study investigates hotel workers’intercultural communicative competence in Hainan, tries to find the problems in their intercultural communication, and gives suggestions to solve them. The better hotel workers’intercultural communicative competence is, the more successful the mutual communication with consumers is, and the higher consumer satisfaction will be. Currently, rare research had been conducted on hotel workers’intercultural communicative competence from the perspective of consumer satisfaction. It can be references for hotels as well as other tourism related industries.Questionnaire survey was the primary research method. Ninety-seven Hainan hotel workers and102foreign tourists participated in the study. Intercultural communicative competence composed of three aspects:Knowledge, skills, and motivation. The findings were obtained by comparing the results of two sets of questionnaire. This study consisted of nine hypotheses. Four were accepted, three were partially accepted, and2were rejected. The results showed that hotel workers’language competence and ICC knowledge were not related to their gender, partially related to workers’department and experience, but related to workers’education. Workers from different hotels performed differently in language competence, but no significant differences between them in their ICC knowledge and practice. Consumer satisfaction was not influenced by foreign tourists’gender and their languages, but it varied according to the hotels.It was found that the ICC of most Hainan hotel workers was still low except a small number of individuals. Their ICC can not meet the actual needs. Consequently, it is suggested that lifelong education and in-service education should be progressed in tourism hotels, and other tourism-related industries. This study investigated hotel workers’ICC, and only three4to5-star hotels were involved. It can be further explored in hotels below4-star and other industries.