Intercultural problems in the tourism industry

Resumen o Introducción

“McDonaldization” (GeorgRitzer), “Cocacolization” (Zdravko Mlinar) and “Mc-World” (Benjamin Barber) are just a few key words of a topic that has gained worldwide interest today. The Globalization is on the roll and seems to be unstoppable. [1] One by one, the world has become a ‘global village’ with multicultural societies, where it is unavoidable for us to get in greater contact with the rest of the world and other cultures. Our daily lives develop an increasingly international orientation. Globalization produced a demand for intercultural communication and awareness for both the tourism industry and many different commercial sectors. The travel and tourism industry has experienced a growing internationalization during the past decades. Especially here people are exposed to cultural different societies. In the tourism industry it is substantial to know cultures in its various forms and dimensions since it has a significant impact on tourism planning and development, management and marketing. Companies in the tourism industry have to understand the influence of national cultures on their consumers to be able to compete for market share successfully. Intercultural communication helps tourists to keep the quality of the interaction with different nationalities high and therefore contribute to their holiday experiences and perceptions of the visited destination. Many intercultural problems within the tourism industry arose during the past years and are becoming more and more threatening for both the host destinations and the tourist himself. This paper describes, analyzes and also discusses some of those problems in the tourism industry and try to find a possible solution for them in order to eventually smoothing the way from a global village to a global community.