Filling in the Gaps for International Tourists

Simple things—such as holding open a door, offering a handshake or sharing a joke you heard the night before—aren’t so simple when traveling overseas. If your clients or employees are planning to travel overseas, it’s important to help them understand important nuances in the culture of the destination they’re visiting.

It’s often difficult for people to know the right thing to do when traveling in a different country—and it can also be hugely embarrassing for those who make a cultural mistake. Being proactive is key so that international tourists are aware of the cultural gaps in what is considered respectful or not, in attire preference, how direct or indirect interactions are, as well as differences in greetings, formality, language and time differences, just to name a few.

Share These Keys to Successful Cross-Cultural Communication

In her bestselling book, Say Anything to Anyone, Anywhere: 5 Keys To Successful Cross-Cultural Communication, author Gayle Cotton details some points that will help assure a smooth and successful interactions abroad:

• Create Proactive Cross-Cultural Communication: Be proactive, not reactive. If you aren’t proactive in your interpersonal, phone and email communication with different cultures, you will likely be reactive. Get started on the right foot by steering clear of an embarrassing gaffe.
• Rapport Secrets to Bridge the Cultural Gap: Create trust and a common bond with the cultures you visit or work with. Creating rapport is the first step when meeting someone new–it establishes a connection of trust and ultimately leads to respect.
• Organize Productive Interactions: Organize productive interactions and know the factors to consider when organizing multi-cultural interactions such as time differences, communication approaches and whether the interaction needs to be more relationship oriented or outcome oriented.
• Strategies for Relationships: Develop interpersonal and virtual strategies that build strong relationships. Understand the beliefs, values and rules of the cultures you visit, work with and socialize with and avoid cultural misunderstanding and conflict due to differences.
• Success Leaves Clues: Be aware of the Cultural Clues and Do’s & Taboos for successful multi-cultural business and social interactions. Learn the gestures and body language that can sabotage a casual visitor, or the most astute business professional.
• The Humorous Faux Pas: Expect cultural bloopers. Paradoxes abound in the English language, but they also happen in every culture.

Explain That Cultural Differences Impact Business

Remember that each country has its own culture, government, and market, so travel options could differ greatly. In China, for example, American businesses struggle to rise through these differences, with many folding and going home.

But not Airbnb, as discussed in Bloomberg. Recently, the home-sharing forerunner, announced a change to its brand name in China and doubled its investment there. They see great opportunity for the newly minted Aibiying, as Chinese travelers spent almost $500 billion in 2015, and the government expects that number to more than double by 2020, thanks to an expanding middle class. The United Nations World Tourism Organization said spending by Chinese tourists hit $261 billion in 2016, 12% more than a year earlier.

China should, theoretically, be one of the world’s biggest and best markets for home shares. “Chinese travelers took 2.2 billion domestic trips in just the first half of 2016, up nearly 10.5 percent year-on-year,” according to Bloomberg, “Yet China has only four hotel rooms for every 1,000 people, compared to 20 in the U.S. And thanks to China’s housing boom, about 50 million empty homes are scattered across the country just waiting (in theory) for paying visitors.”

Issues in China–from tainted foods to questionable pharmaceuticals–have deterred its citizens from welcoming the concept of staying in someone’s home or renting out one’s own space. The biggest barrier is establishing trust between owners and renters. Local companies that have a better pulse on the cultural concerns have a better chance of figuring out a plan forward.

Immersion is the Future

China has been a leader international tourism of late. In 2001, the year China joined the World Trade Organization, only 12 million Chinese tourists went abroad. Since then, this number has grown vastly, in fact, 10-fold. Last year there was an influx of 6% with a total number of Chinese tourists at a staggering 135 million.

See Getting to Know Today’s Chinese Outbound Tourists: Infographic and The Future of the Chinese Online Travel Market.

A top destination for Chinese tourists is Europe. Each year, European destinations welcome 10 million Chinese visitors. But other nations are gaining more relevance regarding tourism, with Indonesia, and BRIC nations India, Russia and Brazil top destinations. “With growth rates falling and competition increasing, the need to understand the source market better has found greater resonance with European tourism operators,” Forbes reported.

The European Union started the World Bridge Tourism (WBT) project last year, led by the European Tourism Commission (ETC), an association of 32 national tourism organizations, and the European Tourism Association (ETOA). “WBT is seen as the ‘curtain raiser’ for the 2018 EU–China Tourism Year (ECTY2018), a tourism initiative developed last summer between the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and the Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang,” according to Forbes.

A survey was produced that analyzed user-generated content in 26 thousand Chinese social media reviews about European attractions and activities. The results revealed positive impressions of Europe were “Rich culture and History,” “Beautiful and unpolluted environments,” and “many photo opportunities.” On the negative side: “Language problems,” “Safety concerns,” and “Bad (Chinese) Food.” Chinese tourists, like those everywhere, struggle to achieve immersion during their travels, the report indicated.

Denmark is working to change this, claiming “The End of Tourism as we know it.” Tourists are treated as temporary residents during their stay – a paradigm shift in tourism that came to light to mitigate the increasing frictions between locals in city destinations like Barcelona, Berlin, Venice, etc. and the numerous tourists making day-to-day life difficult for citizens.

Younger travelers from China are less interested in sightseeing and shopping and more into experiencing. Tourism as we know it is being redefined–in Europe and beyond. Make sure your clients and employees who traverse the globe are ready to explore new cultures with confidence.

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