Tourist Host Contact Case Study

Concerning the contact hypothesis and the tourist-host contact illustrated above, majority of the possible outcome would be primarily negative in terms of attitudes, interactions, perceptions, values, and communication. As described in the scenario above, the culture of most Muslim countries are conservative thus creating a greater chance of conflict with tourist who originate from less conservative cultures. Tourist who arrive from less conservative cultures can be greeted by a tourist-host interaction that consist of culture clash. The host Muslim country may have difficulty understanding the differences of the tourist culture and may react negatively to the presence of a conflicting tourist culture.

The negative interactions stem from the

The host culture may perceive the tourist with stereotypes and negative perceptions that is engrained in their own culture concerning the tourist culture. The host country may interact with tourist with a preconception concerning the tourist’s values, behavior, and attitudes. This may result in the host culture being communicating negatively based on the assumption that the tourist already has negative attitudes toward the host country. Concerning communication, the host culture may react negatively to tourist contact by changing their non-verbal and verbal communication techniques. In terms of pragmatics, semantics, kinesics, and proxemics, the host culture may choose to utilize unwelcoming body language, tone, words, or facial expression when communicating with

Communication may be negative due to the language barrier. The host culture may have a different language than the tourist culture and may not be familiar with the tourist language. This can result in negativity due to frustration from limited chances to communicate. The language barrier may also extend to nonverbal language and aspects such as body language, tone, and facial expressions may differ enough to create a negative communication for the tourist culture.

Concerning perceptions, the tourist culture may believe that the Muslim culture is not conservative, but instead oppressive, and might react to the host-culture with anger. The tourist culture may view the host culture’s values as immoral or wrong due to the conservative nature. The tourist may then develop a negative attitude and view the host culture as victims. Aspects of Muslim culture such as burkas, and no alcohol may be viewed as the tools of oppression to the tourist. This may result in inter-cultural that are then patronizing or political in