The Effects of Age Stereotypes on Tour Leader Roles

Abstract

This study explores whether various distance trips and age stereotypes affect tourists’ perceptions of tour leaders’ roles. This research also identifies the moderating effects regarding tour leader age stereotype, age in-group bias, and the respondents’ age on the perceived roles played by tour leaders. A total of 447 subjects participated in the study with a 2 (role-play scenarios: short-distance trip vs. long-distance trip) × 2 (appearances of the tour leader: middle-aged vs. young) between-subjects factorial design. The results showed that the respondents’ perceived roles of a middle-aged appearance tour leader were better than some young appearance counterparts’ components under short- and long-distance conditions. Furthermore, the tour leader age stereotype and age in-group bias could influence respondents’ perceptions of care and interactional and communicative dimensions. In addition, respondents’ age could affect the perceptions of some components of the tour leaders under short- and long-distance conditions.

Exploring tour guiding styles: The perspective of tour leader roles

“…Tour leaders must also fulfill tourists' needs, care for their physical and psychological requirements, and resolve problems and conflicts during the tour. Luoh and Tsaur (2014) summarized Chen, Hsin, and Shen (2010), and Huang, Hsu, and Chan (2010), proposing that other than the roles described by Cohen (1985), emergency response management and taking care of tourists' needs are also duties and tasks of tour leaders on the China route. Because of their job characteristics and content, tour leaders must exert effort, expend time, and adopt diverse role functions to achieve tourists' GPT purposes, thereby enabling them to have fun.…”

“…Aside from the role of a leader, tour leaders must also adopt the various roles of a communicator, entertainer, and cultural messenger (Cohen, 1985;Luoh & Tsaur, 2014;Weiler & Black, 2014). Tour leaders utilize their multiple roles during tour guiding to present consistent habits or patterns that form personal styles and features.…”

“…Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to investigate the core of a tour leader's guiding style, as well as the indicators that can be applied for an effective evaluation. On the basis of the models proposed by Cohen (1985) and Luoh and Tsaur (2014) for tour leaders' roles, we developed a scale for measuring tour guiding styles. Because a tour guiding service is the core component of any GPT, it is reasonable to argue that whether tourists are satisfied with a tour guiding service plays an essential role in their satisfaction with services provided by travel agencies.…”

The stereotyping of tourism management students in a business school setting

“…Other researchers have investigated the effects of characteristics such as age, (Luoh & Tsaur, 2014), culture (Laxson, 1991), and gender (Sirakaya & Sonmez, 2000) in stereotypes. Yet, despite what Bender, Gidlow, and Fisher (2013) have described as the widespread acknowledgement of stereotypes in tourism studies, limited research has provided an in-depth understanding of the origins of stereotyping.…”

A Study on the Relationship between Work-Family Conflicts and the Job Satisfaction of Tour Leaders

“…For the whole journey, the tour leader is the leader of the tour, a coordinator at the destination and a friend to tour members (Heung, 2008). A tour leader can also be called a tour manager or a tour escort and may sometimes need to undertake the tasks of a tour guide/tourist guide (Luoh & Tsaur, 2014). Tour leaders are the soul of a group package tour.…”