THE DEVELOPMENT TEAM

Principal Investigator Prof. S. P. Bansal,

Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi University, Rewari

Co-Principal Investigator Dr. Prashant K. Gautam,

Director, UIHTM, Panjab University, Chandigarh

Paper Coordinator Prof. Sandeep Kulshreestha,

Director, Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management

Paper Co-Coordinator Dr. Saurabh Dixit,

Nodal Officer, IITTM, Gwalior

Content Writer Dr. Saurabh Dixit,

Nodal Officer, IITTM, Gwalior

Content Reviewer Dr. Prashant K. Gautam,

Director, UIHTM, Panjab University, Chandigarh

Paper 9: Tour Guiding Essentials Module 14: Communication

Items Description of Module

Subject Name Tourism and Hospitality

Paper Name Tour Guiding Essentials

Module Title Communication

Module Id Module no-14

Pre- Requisites Basic knowledge of Tourism and its types

Objectives After completing this chapter you will

Learn about the importance of communication in

tourism

Know the meaning

Keywords Content management

Tone

Pitch

Paraphrasing

Modulation

Voice

Sender

Receiver

CONTENTS

14.0 Introduction

14.1 Communication

14.2 Medium of Communication

14.3 Communication in Tour Guiding

14. 4 Classification of communication

14.5 Measurement of Communication

14.6 Keywords

14.7 Summary

References

Recommended Books

QUADRANT 1

14.0 Introduction

Communication means to share. The word communication is derived from the Latin word

communiqué. As per Shannon, there are many steps in communication. Major ones are:-

The framing of open inspiration (Motivation)

2. Message creation and synthesis pre-composition

3. Message encoding for instance modernized data, made substance, talk, pictures

and so forth.

4. Transmission of the encoded data or message as a progression of signs using a

specific channel or medium.

5. Noise sources, for instance, trademark qualities and now and again human

development (both consider and unplanned) begin influencing the idea of signs spreading

from the sender to no less than one beneficiaries.

6. Reception of signs and re-assembling of the encoded message from a gathering of

received signals.

7. Decoding of the reassembled encoded data or message.

8. Interpretation and understanding the original message.

(C.E. Shannon. "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" (PDF). Math.harvard.edu.

Recovered 2017-05-01. On twelfth May'2017)

14.1 Communication

The word communication is defined as an integration of two activities i.e. generation of

signals, transfer of signals farm one place to another or sending signals, receiving signals,

understanding meaning of signals.

Communication for a tour guide is like the spinal cord in a human body. A Tour guide

cannot survive without good communication. Guide is the person who communicates

hidden story behind a place, monument, market, and handcraft to the tourists.

Communication word is derived from the word communicate (it means to share).

‘Communi’ care is a Latin word.

Communication means to frame a message in your mind, to speak and listener listens to

the message and interprets in the brain. So, it is a process which passes on some

information from speaker to listener. Communication is complete when speaker speaks

(what he wants) and listeners understand (the same message). We are incomplete without

communication.

Communication is the backbone of tourism and travel industry. Without communication

we cannot think of any activity n tourism. Right from designing of a tour package to

completion of tour, communication is involved in every step. A tour guide must have

good idea about communication. He must also have good command for better

communication. Toru guides must practices verbal and non-verbal communication. He

must understand gesture, tone, and lingual, and posture, verbal, formal and informal

communication. Communication must be given weight during training of a tour guide.

Toru guide must also learn the use of icons and their meaning. Tour guides must create a

good content for the destinations they are visiting quite often on tour packages. They

must practice meet and greet exercises with the tourists. They must know how to handle a

big group using gestures, How to display confidence in front of tourist, How to

handshake, How to gather and disburse people at the destination.

A tour guide must also learn to write formal letters, e-mails, small messages, texting over

electronic media. He must also learn English and other major languages they are

concerned with. If your company is dealing with French group, you must also learn

French and non-verbal communications of people of that country. Good hand writing

used to improve communication between travel company and tour guide.

Communication can be improved by rehearsing regularly.

14.2 Medium of communication

Medium means channel or system of communication between sender and receiver. It is

the means by which information is transmitted from speaker (i.e. tour guide) to the

listener (i.e. tourists). It can be divided into two classes’ physical media and mechanical

medium.

Physical medium

It means channels where the person speaking can be seen or heard by the group members

or tourists. Here, tourists not only hear the message, he can see or feel body language also

and feel the climate of tourist place/ monument/ site. In majority of situations tourists

expect physical communication with the tour guide.

Mechanical medium

In this type of communication medium is mechanical. It means written or electronic

channels. Examples of mechanical mediums are:-

a. E-Mails

b. Letters

c. New Letter

d. Travel brochures

e. Billboard

f. Intranet

g. SMS

h. Social Media for example: face book, whatsapp etc.

14.3 Communication in Tour Guiding

A tour guide job is based on communication only. Communication is a process, which

requires a huge collection of abilities in relational handling, tuning in, watching, talking,

addressing, investigating, motions, and assessing empowers joint effort and cooperation.

Communication is the backbone of any activity in tourism and travel trade. Without

communication, we cannot complete the task. Communication synergies speed of any

activity.

A tour guide must have good verbal and non-verbal communication. Verbal

communication helps in commentary making and non-verbal communication is useful for

communication with the travel agency.

Communication also deals with the era of signs, exchange of signs cultivate one place to

another or sending signals, getting signals, understanding significance of signs. A tour

guide must know meaning of symbols, icons found at many places. A tour guide is an

individual who imparts story behind (related to) a place, landmarks, markets, and

handcrafts to the tourists/ visitors. The word communication is related to the word impart

(it intends to share).

14. 4 Classification of communication

There are many channels of communication. Channel means medium. These channels

are:-

1. Verbal

2. Non-verbal

What is verbal communication?

Verbal communication means message conveyed through the voice from sender to

receiver. It depends on voice, pitch, rhythm, volume and way of speaking. Most of the

messages/ information are conveyed verbally in travel agencies, hotels, monuments,

railway stations, airports. For example: you must be familiar with railway station

announcement system or announce at airport. If information is the clearly audible and

understand by the passenger, there are chances that passengers will not be able to catch

the train or flight.

Think about natural calamities Tsunami, Earth Quake, SARS. Message is passed on and

action is expected at the same time. One wrong message or miscommunication may

create chaos at the tourism destination.

Non-verbal communication

Travel agents collect information form tourists about the name, age, source of travel, the

destination of travel etc. If there is any mistake on the part of travel agent, there will be a

penalty on him. One tour group boarded the train and after boarding tour guide found that

ticket is booked for next day. As non-verbal communication is in writing, it is more

important and authentic.

One way communication

A message is passed one from sender to receiver is one way communication. One way

communication is used when authorities pass on the message to a group of people. You

must be familiar with travel channels in TV, these channels are one way communication.

E-Mail is a one way communication. The Receiver has time to think and respond in one

way communication.

Two way communication

If there is a message from one side and simultaneous receiver is also responding, it is two

way communications. Communication trough telephone, mobile is two way

communications. Receiver has to respond immediately to two way communication.

Message is acknowledged in two way communication. Two way communications is fast,

reliable.

Non-verbal communication

Verbal means speaking. Communication in which we communicate without speaking is

non-verbal communication. Non-verbal communication is very important for day to day

life. It has immense less significance in tourism and travel industry. For example: folding

hands to welcome the tourist in place of saying Namaste is non-verbal communication. It

includes eye to eye contact, handshake, winking etc. Speech (verbal communication) also

contains non-verbal segments known as paralanguage, e.g. musicality, emphasis, beat,

and stress. It impacts communication most at the instinctive level and develops trust. In

like way, formed works fuse nonverbal segments, for instance, handwriting style, spatial

strategy of words and the use of emoticons to pass on feelings. Nonverbal communication

delineates the systems of passing on a sort of information as non-semantic depictions.

Instances of nonverbal communication consolidate haptic communication, chromatic

communication, signals, non-verbal communication, outward appearances, eye to eye

connection, and how one dress. Tourists coming from faraway places cannot understand

spoken words (if there is different language and that language speaking guide is not

available), so here non-verbal communication is more powerful. Nonverbal

communication furthermore relates to objective of a message.

There are many reasons to justify that why non-verbal communication expects a vital part

in communication:

a. Non-verbal communication is present everywhere.

b. They are fused into every single communication show. To have indicated

communication, all non-verbal channels, for example, the body, go up against,

voice, appearance, touch, partition, timing, and other environmental forces must

be secured in the midst of eye to eye affiliation.

c. Created communication can similarly have non-verbal qualities. Messages and

web visits empower individual's the contrasting option to change content literary

style shades, stationary, emoticons, and capitalization with a particular ultimate

objective to get non-verbal prompts into a verbal medium.

d. Non-verbal communication is multifunctional.

e. Many particular non-verbal diverts are secured meanwhile in communication

acts, and empower the likelihood for synchronous messages to be sent and got.

f. Non-verbal communication may outline a broad vernacular structure.

g. Smiling, crying, coordinating, stroking, and glaring are non-verbal practices that

are used and grasped by tourists/ travelers (any individual) paying little regard to

nationality.

h. Non-verbal signs allow the most major kind of communication, when verbal

communication is not effective in view of vernacular obstructions.

Posture and movement

Posture and movement of a person tells/ implicates number of things. It is a kind of

informal communication. Your movement defines your confidence level. You must also

know personal distances to be kept keeping in mind cross cultural issues. Tour guides’

body language and posture provides important information to supplement words.

Facial Expressions

Being a tour guide, we must welcome our guest with Namaste and smile. If tourists do

not understand the meaning of Namaste, but, he can understand by your smiling face that

you are welcoming him. Facial expressions are very important in the tourism industry.

Tourists understand your feeling through your facial expressions. Our face is very

expressive. It can communicate countless emotions without speaking or saying a single

word. Facial expressions for happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, disgust etc. are

almost same in every culture. It is valuable for a tour guide to use an appropriate facial

expression.

Emoticons are used in social media in place of facial expressions in real time situation.

Gestures

The Gestures implicate your focus area and what you wish to point out. Gesture is a form

of non-verbal communication and non-vocal form of communication in which bodily

action communicate a message. It is used either in place of in conjunction with speech.

Being a tour guide, you must know hand gestures and other body actions. Hand gestures

make group members (members of tour group) to listen you. You should know how to

make your gestures purposeful. You must be careful and aware cross culturally. Gestures

are attention directing, requesting information, reference specifying, supporting,

answering questions in yes or no. You can use hand gestures for:-

a. Listing

b. You are determined

c. Everything

d. Listen up

e. Small, medium, large

f. Let me tell you

g. Just a part

h. Me

i. Growth

j. You

k. This and that

l. Come together

m. Its’ just go

n. I am not hiding anything

o. You listen to me

p. Stop

q. We

Verbal communication

Verbal communication is communication through spoken words. Verbal communication

is the talked or made transport out of a message. Verbal communication is the use of

sound and words to express something. It is the opposite of expression through manners

and/ or gestures. For example: saying Namaste to tourists is a verbal communication. It

can also be defined as sharing the information with clients/ tourists using speech is a

verbal communication. Toru Commentary is a form of verbal communication. Tourists

easily understand spoken words, so verbal communication is very powerful. Good or

effective verbal communication depends on a number of factors. These factors are:-

1. Clarity of speech

If you are guiding at any tourism destination. Your speech/ commentary must be

clear. Otherwise, tourist will not understand what you are saying or what do you

want to say or express. Pronounce every word clearly (as probably tourist is from

some other place/ state/ region/ country). Tourist might be having some other

language for example: Malayalam, French, and Spanish etc.

2. Cool and Calm

Remain cool and calm while speaking to the tourists. If you are cool and calm,

you will be able to decide what to speak and what not to speak. You will be able

to speak in better way.

A cool and calm person can speak with patience and deliver the message properly.

3. Focused

Talk to the point. As you have limited time to interact with the tourists, be

focused and should know what to speak. Speak to the point. If you are focused,

you can give more examples related to tourism, tourist place, traditions, rituals,

festivals, monuments, peoples, political scenario, weather, geography etc. A

focused tour guide can easily satisfy tour group members.

(https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/verbal-communication.html accessed on 30th

July’2017)

Diction

Diction is the style of speaking or choosing words. Diction makes a lot of difference in

commentary making of a good tour guide, the way you select words in your commentary

and general speaking with the group member cerate difference.

Clear linguistic

Linguistic is the study of language and its forms. It is about structure and use of

psychology of language.

Tone

Tone means vocal sound of a person with reference to the quality, strength and pitch;

attitude of a place or writing. It gives strength of firmness to your voice.

Volume

A tour guide must have habit to speak in the voice, which can be heard by all group

members. You can use cordless phone or collar mice ( if the tourist place is

overcrowded).

Rate

It is related to the speed of which you are speaking in front of the client or tourists. If rate

is more, client will not be able to understand your words or sentences. If the rate is too

slow, you will take much time to cover the topic. The Rate must be according to the

tourists and their background of language. When you are reading through a side show in

presentation, rate is lower than normal. Normally, we speak about 125 words per minute.

Rate of speech is very important while delivering commentary to the group. It is less in

the case of a group interaction and more in case of single or Fit’s.

We can also classify communication on the basis of direction from sender to receiver and

receiver to sender.

1. One way communication

2. Two way communication

In tourism and hospitality industry one must good in both verbal and non-verbal

communication. It is a part of service industry. Product is in intangible form. So,

whatever you have committed in writing that is important. Tour guiding speaking in front

of a group must be good in verbal communication.

14.5 Measurement of Communication

In tour guiding, individual must assess following variables to measure communication.

Creation of content

Being a tour guide, you must plan has to create content for tour guiding. It means,

creating or drafting commentary, finalizing itinerary program received from the travel

accompany, checking the script for best communication, checking and rechecking words

as per the adaptability of the tour group ( as mostly groups are from other areas and there

is difference in language and pronunciation). Content is the most powerful tool which

drives a good commentary and results in the best feedback from the clients. Content must

be too the point. You must focus on each and every word of the content to further refine

it. Try to translate localized words, if possible. Give more examples.

Delivery of content

Second most important part in communication is delivery. Proper delivery can ensure that

receiver is able to receive information derived by the tour guide. While delivering

commentary, you must ensure that words are spoken properly and tone, volume and rate

were all right. While delivering content through commentary keep your volume of voice,

so that your voice should be audible to all group members.

Consumption of content

Consumption of content means your communiqué is consumed or accepted by the listener

i.e. tourists. If he has understood your message properly, it means content is consumed.

Now a day majority of people are multi-tasker and if your commentary (content) is

consumed properly that is your success. You must make your content of commentary

easy to consume. Provide entertaining content. Ensure that your content is imaginable (as

tourists must be able to think about the past, if you are narrating him history of

monument.). Be focused and try t avoid dual content consumption (at the end of

tourists.). Being a tour guide, you must try to increase content engagement (at the end of

tourists) by enriching your content with selective words. Tourist expects content of their

interest. As long as it satisfies then, they take interest in commentary and pay attention to

the message otherwise they roam around here and there.

Management of content

It means creation, editing, making content available to other ( in the form of commentary

or some other form of information).

Engagement and outcomes

We may develop understanding of how to reach our clients and what will be possible

outcomes. Ultimately, this will lead to minimize the wastage and renew focus on the

guiding work.

(https://securitycatalyst.com/three-ways-effectively-communicating-value-can-be-

measured/ on 12/05/2017)

References

C.E. Shannon. "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" (PDF). Math.harvard.edu.

Recovered 2017-05-01. On twelfth May'2017

https://securitycatalyst.com/three-ways-effectively-communicating-value-can-be-

measured/ on 12/05/2017