Tourism Service Encounter in the Cross-Cultural Context

This paper explores the respective rules of behaviour of international tourists from China, France and the USA and Vietnamese service providers. The Principal Components Analysis method is used to identify and group the distinctive rules of behaviour of tourists and hosts with a view to providing an enhanced understanding of tourists-hosts interaction during the service encounter in cross-cultural settings. It presents the findings of a self-administered survey to 235 Chinese, 180 French and 170 American tourists visiting Vietnam. The rules of behaviour guiding Western and Asian respondents were found to have more differences than similarities. The differences impact upon host and guest intercultural interactions during service encounter. The research has both practical and academic significance. From the theoretical perspective, this study provides an enhancing understanding of Argyle et al.’s study on cross-cultural variations in the rules which determine relationships. This instrument has previously been applied in the field of sociology, psychology and marketing. In the present case, it is used with some modifications to measure hosts-guests cross-cultural interactions in the service encounter and the associated insights should be useful for tourism researchers. The implications for tourism industry management destination and marketers are presented. It is recommended that the Vietnamese tourism authorities target international tourism markets more precisely and improve the quality of service provision.