Intercultural Communication in Tourism

This course presents a critical intercultural framework for tourism that is grounded in the changing global realities. It focuses on how tourism shapes intercultural interactions and how tourism might promote understanding and interactions across borders towards social justice for all. It takes a global perspective on how the changing global relations and intensifying mobility of people and cultural objects across borders shape culture, heritage, identity and intercultural interactions. We will examine what challenges and opportunities arise when groups come into temporary or extended contact, and how such contact can encourage mutual understanding and dialogue or perpetuate misunderstanding and stereotypes. We will thus discuss how the legacy of colonialism, European travel and the display of others in museums as well as current global structures perpetuate unequal relations and impede understanding. We will also discuss what conditions are necessary for ethical contact, productive learning, empowerment. The course aims to enhance students’ knowledge and skills for informed and engaged global citizenship.

- understanding the critical intercultural framework ‘for the changing world’ and its application to tourism 

- comprehending the complex and dynamic nature of intercultural interactions in different tourism contexts;
- understanding how global relations in the past and present shape interactions among different groups, including among different groups of tourists and between different groups of tourists and local people;
- demonstrating proficiency in understanding and application of key theoretical concepts to analyses of different practices and cases;
- developing ideas for intercultural tourism practices;

In presence

Lectures, readings, assignments and discussions are in English.

Group work (30%) and an individual paper based on a group project (70%).