A study on the cultural competencies of tourist guides in Turkey

Tourist guides can be defined as cultural ambassadors between the tourist and the local people regarding duties and responsibilities. In fulfilling this task, they must get to know both local people and visitors in many ways. It is necessary to have an awareness of the basic elements that make up the culture, namely the local language, traditions and customs, the religious and moral norms of the local people and the style of dressing. In this context, tourist guides need to be culturally competent individuals. This study investigates the level of cultural competencies of tourist guides from the perspective of tourists and tourist guides. In addition, whether there is a difference between their evaluations is also examined within the scope of the research. The research was carried out with the quantitative research method using the questionnaire technique. In Turkey, 204 tourist guides with license and 372 tourists who participated in at least one guided tour were included in the research. The data collected from the participants were analyzed with the SPSS statistical program. As a result of the analyzes, the results related to the ten sub-dimensions of the scale named cultural competencies of tourist guides were revealed. As a result of the t-test for the related sample, which was conducted to determine whether there is a difference between the cultural competencies of the guides and the evaluations of the tourists and the guides, it was determined that there were significant differences in the sub-dimensions of understanding the local travel environment, intercultural communication and interaction skills, understanding the local culture and cultural affinity. In addition, no significant difference was found between the evaluations of tourists and guides regarding language ability, understanding local life habits, understanding the cultural backgrounds of tour members, cultural empathy, cultural mediation and cultural adaptation sub-dimensions. According to these results, some theoretical and practical suggestions are presented. Keywords: Competency, Cultural Competence, Tourist Guidance