Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research

ISSN: 1094-1665 (Print) 1741-6507 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rapt20

Impression management of tour leaders

Libo Yan & Hoi-Kei Ho

To cite this article: Libo Yan & Hoi-Kei Ho (2017): Impression management of tour leaders, Asia
Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, DOI: 10.1080/10941665.2016.1276086

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Published online: 12 Jan 2017.

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ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH, 2017
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10941665.2016.1276086

Impression management of tour leaders

Libo Yan and Hoi-Kei Ho
Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau, People’s Republic of China

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
The conception of impression management has been widely used for investigating Tour leaders; impression
issues such as presentation of staff and enterprise images, or the interaction management; self-
between customers and service workers. The existing studies in tourism and presentation; tour operation;
Macau
hospitality tended to adopt an early framework of impression management, thus
neglecting the recent development of impression management studies. To enhance
the understanding of impression management in relation to tourist service, the
present study was conducted to disclose the various strategies tour leaders use for
image building or self-presentation. The data were drawn from in-depth interviews.
The results showed that diverse tactics, verbal and nonverbal, were employed for
impression management in tour operation. Another finding of this study was that
the impression management strategies are not mutually exclusive; instead, various
links exist among the strategies. The implications for future studies and industry
practice were discussed.

potentials to serve as the speculative foundations for

Introduction
As a social psychology concept introduced by
Goffman in 1950s, impression management refers to
creating or restoring the image of oneself in the
mind of others for purposes such as individual
benefit and reward (Yilmaz, 2014; Zaidman & Drory,
2001). This concept has been applied to investigations
in various business settings. In the recent decade, the
sociological concept of impression management has
found its way into tourism and hospitality studies. A
few studies applying the concept have been con-
ducted, revolving around entities such as hotels and
travel agencies, as well as the interaction between
tourists and frontline staff. These studies focus on
tourist perceptions of the service and behaviours of
employees such as hotel staff and tour leaders, or
put it simply, the consumer’s impression on the
service worker (Chiang & Chen, 2014; Lin, 2005;
Manzur & Jogaratnam, 2007; Su, Yang, Badaoui, &
Cho, 2014; Yang, Su, & Yang, 2009). Tang (2014) exam-
ined the overall situation of tourism and hospitality
researchers’ application of social psychology theories
and concepts, and finds that despite the “great
research problems in hospitality and tourism disci-
plines … , impression management have not been
well extended to the discipline of hospitality and
tourism management” (p. 192).
The limited studies on impression management in
tourism and hospitality service settings tend to rely on
Jones and Pittman’s (1982) framework that classified
impression management strategies into five cat-
egories (ingratiation and so on, see literature review).
In doing so, these studies neglect the techniques for
impression management beyond the framework.
This situation might be caused by the failure to
notice a concept closely related to impression man-
agement, that is, self-presentation, which refers to
efforts in controlling the images of one in the minds
of others (Lewis & Neighbors, 2005).
Impression management is not a one-sided process
as “both parties seek to exploit and manipulate
impressions” (Clark & Salaman, 1998, p. 29) and “one
actor’s strategy may trigger counterstrategies in the
target person” (Jones & Pittman, 1982, p. 260). Jones
and Pittman explained that intimidation could bring
about ingratiation of the target person, and vice

CONTACT Libo Yan lbyan@must.edu.mo Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Macau University of Science and Technology,
Avenida Wai Long, Taipa, Macau, People’s Republic of China
© 2017 Asia Pacific Tourism Association
2 L. YAN AND H-K. HO
versa; self-promotion might lead to competitive self-
promotion of the target. They also noted that there
could be links among strategies. How the strategies
are linked or fused remains unknown to date,
however. The increasing number of impression man-
agement strategies in literature also adds to the
necessity of understanding the interwoven relation-
ships among strategies.
Few studies have been conducted from the per-
spective of the actor of impression management. In
other words, a different perspective is in need to dis-
close the dynamics of service employees’ manage-
ment of their images (Kacmar, Crawford, Harris, &
Cheung, 2015). Accordingly, the present study focus-
ing on the subject of impression management could
enhance understanding of the dynamic process of
constructing impressions. Wong and Wang’s (2009)
study of the emotional labour of tour leaders demon-
strated the effectiveness of the subject’s perspective
on the job crafting of the tourism service workers.
The ideal image to communicate in impression
management should be positive (Park, 2010);
however, the positive image is sector specific. So are
the tactics and skills for creating the ideal image.
These issues refer to the-what of impression manage-
ment, and its relevance to tour operation is insuffi-
ciently known. Through a qualitative inquiry, the
present study aims to explore tour leaders’ strategies
for impression management. In the setting of group
package tour, diversified social backgrounds of partici-
pants plus the intensive and continuous interactions
between the leader and tour participants make
impression management of leaders complicated and
thus worthy of investigation (Lin, 2005; Yang et al.,
2009). To fill in the gaps noted previously, this study
attempts to answer the following two questions:
What strategies of impression management are
employed by leaders in tour operation? What are the
links among impression management tactics?
Literature review
The motivations for engaging in impression manage-
ment are relevant to reward, self-esteem or desired
self-identity; and the intensity of motivations is up to
the individual’s dependence on others for valued out-
comes (Zaidman & Drory, 2001). An experimental
study disclosed that restaurant food service severs
received significantly higher tips when ingratiating
guests than when not (Seiter, 2007). Impression man-
agement strategies have a direct relationship with
work outcomes such as career success and perform-
ance appraisal (Yilmaz, 2014). In package tour settings,
for smooth conduct of tour, the leader is supposed to
maintain good relationships with participants, thus
being in need of presenting favourable images of
self; the leader also needs to gain trust and
cooperation of tour participants and to control the
group climate of the escorted tour, which calls upon
such images as being competent and worthy
(Chiang & Chen, 2014).
Tourists’ impression on the leader could affect the
interaction between the two sides, which is critical
for tourist behavioural intentions (Chiang & Chen,
2014). A study on Hong Kong residents’ selection of
travel agencies found that company reputation was
regarded as the most important factor to consider, fol-
lowed by word-of-mouth communication and staff
attitude (Heung & Chu, 2000). This finding was
echoed in subsequent studies (Hui & Wan, 2006; Ng,
Cassidy, & Brown, 2006). The factors that influence
decision-making are related to the image of a travel
agency, which is essentially based on consumers’
impressions on its staff, tour leaders in particular.
Accordingly, the effectiveness of leaders’ impression
management has received scholarly attentions
recently. Existing studies are mainly concerned with
tourist perceptions of the image-related behaviours
of leaders (Chiang & Chen, 2014; Su et al., 2014).
However, for a holistic understanding of impression
management, both perspectives of subject and
object are necessary (Kacmar et al., 2015). In other
words, how leaders apply impression management
strategies is worthy of attention. As Chiang and
Chen (2014) recently stated: “[T]he specific impression
management behaviours used by tour leaders are still
poorly understood” (p. 748).
Jones and Pittman (1982) categorised the tech-
niques that individuals commonly used for construct-
ing impressions on selves into five types: ingratiation,
self-promotion, exemplification, supplication and inti-
midation. A description of these techniques was made
subsequently on the basis of two previous studies
(Lewis & Neighbors, 2005; Manzur & Jogaratnam,
2007). Ingratiation occurs when employees use
favours or flattery to make others like, reward and
view them favourably. Self-promotion occurs when
employees call attention to their accomplishments
to be perceived as competent, smart and effective.
Exemplification occurs when employees go beyond
the call of duty to be seen as dedicated and com-
mitted, and the relevant techniques involve in

constructing impressions such as integrity, self-sacri-
fice and moral worthiness. Supplication occurs when
employees present their weakness or deficiencies to
obtain compassion and assistance from others. Intimi-
dation occurs when employees attempt to create or
enhance an identity of being tough, serious or
dangerous.
The framework of Jones and Pittman (1982) has
been recently applied to tourism and hospitality
studies. The impression management techniques of
tour leaders are related to service quality, which
then affects their job performance and income (Su
et al., 2014; Yang et al., 2009). Tour leaders’
impression-making behaviours have an influence on
the interaction quality, which has bearing on tourists’
behavioural intentions and the reputation of tour
operators (Chiang & Chen, 2014). These studies dis-
closed that how the influence of impression manage-
ment takes effect and what the outcomes of
influences are. Studies on the antecedents of
impression management found that personality
traits of tour leaders such as self-monitoring and
Machiavellianism (manipulating others for personal
success) influence adoption of impression manage-
ment techniques (Yang et al., 2009). The object’s
self-monitoring distorts the effect of impression man-
agement behaviours of a tour leader. Specifically, the
negative outcomes of a leader’s use of non-positive
tactics such as supplication and intimidation were
weakened by tour participants’ level of self-monitor-
ing (Su et al., 2014). Apart from the object’s personal
traits, their cultural background could also affect per-
ceptions of impression-making behaviours (Manzur &
Jogaratnam, 2007). Discussion of the limited studies
of impression management in tourism and hospitality
shows that the major concern in these studies is the
relationships between impression-constructing beha-
viours and other variables such as antecedents, mod-
erating factors and outcomes. By contrast, impression-
making behaviours per se are not well investigated.
Self-presentation, a synonym of impression man-
agement, refers to one’s intentional use of certain
behaviours to regulate the impressions that observers
have of the individual (Lewis & Neighbors, 2005). Lee,
Quigley, Nesler, Corbett, and Tedeschi (1999) devel-
oped a taxonomy of self-presentation skills. The taxon-
omy includes 13 tactics: excuse, apology, justification,
disclaimer, entitlement, enhancement, self-handicap-
ping, basking, blasting, ingratiation, exemplification,
intimidation and supplication. This taxonomy could
be understood as an expansion of Jones and Pittman’s
ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH 3
(1982) framework, albeit self-promotion being
excluded. These strategies were described sub-
sequently on the basis of previous studies (see Lee
et al., 1999; Lewis & Neighbors, 2005). Excuse is used
to deny responsibility for negative events. Apology is
used to confess responsibility for harm done to
others or negative events, or to express remorse. Jus-
tification is used to provide reasons for negative beha-
viours while claiming partial responsibility. Disclaimer
is used to explain predicaments or problems before
they occur. Entitlement refers to claim of credit for
positive achievement. Enhancement is used when an
individual persuades others that the outcomes of his
or her behaviours are better than they might have
originally thought. Self-handicapping is used to
prevent observers from attributing one’s failure to
competence through drawing attention to certain cir-
cumstances (obstacles to success) produced by
oneself (Chen, 2009). As indirect tactics of impression
management, basking and blasting refer to presen-
tation of positive or negative information about an
entity with which one is merely associated, rather
than information about oneself (Cialdini & Richardson,
1980). Moreover, sandbagging, referring to creating
low performance expectations though false claims of
inability (Sedikides, Hoorens, & Dufner, 2015), is also
regarded as an impression management strategy.
According to the attributes of outcomes, the five
strategies in the framework of Jones and Pittman
(1982) could be placed in two categories: positive
and non-positive (Bolino & Turnley, 2003). The positive
tactics (including ingratiation, self-promotion and
exemplification) are likely to leave a favourable
impression in the minds of others. The non-positive
tactics (covering supplication and intimidation) could
lead to repercussion or less favourable impressions.
According to the goals of strategies, Lee et al. (1999)
categorised the 13 strategies in their taxonomy into
two types: defensive and assertive. Excuse, justifica-
tion, disclaimer, self-handicapping and apology fall
into the defensive category, and other tactics belong
to the assertive set. They noted that assertive strat-
egies are used to create images and defensive ones
to defend or restore a spoiled image. Both classifi-
cations leave out nonverbal tactics.
Nonverbal behaviours are also important for con-
structing impressions. People tend to regulate their
nonverbal behaviours and seldom allow spontaneous
and unselfconscious body language which might dis-
close their dispositions, feelings or other internal
states (DePaulo, 1992). DePaulo noted that nonverbal
4 L. YAN AND H-K. HO
skills are not homogeneous and involve many aspects
such facial expressions, movements, postures and
appearance (including attire). DePaulo emphasised
that it is inappropriate to understand nonverbal
expressive behaviours as exclusive expression of
emotions since other information (such as opinions
and values) could also be conveyed in nonverbal
behaviours. Some studies included nonverbal tech-
niques in investigating impression management.
Manzur and Jogaratnam (2007) conducted a study
on impression management in the hospitality service
encounter and found that the use of nonverbal tech-
niques was related to customer satisfaction. Similarly,
Yang’s (2007) study of impression management of
interpreters found that sound performance and
body language correlated with tourist satisfaction.
Furthermore, an experimental study disclosed that a
certain kind of nonverbal technique, touching the cus-
tomer’s shoulder, significantly affects the tips a server
received (Lynn, Le, & Sherwyn, 1998). These studies
suggest that nonverbal techniques should not be neg-
lected in impression management studies; instead,
they are complement to the strategies identified by
Jones and Pittman (1982) and Lee et al. (1999).
Alternative classifications of impression manage-
ment strategies with various focuses have been dis-
cussed in literature. Impression management
strategies could be classified into three types: supervi-
sor-focused (ingratiatory or favour-rendering beha-
viours of employees), self-focused (behaviours of
making oneself look like polite, hardworking and dedi-
cated) and job-focused (self-promotive behaviours to
make an employee appear more competent) (Wayne
& Ferris, 1990; Yilmaz, 2014). This taxonomy shares
some similarities with the framework of Jones and
Pittman (1982): the supervisor-focused strategy is
close to ingratiation, the self-focused to exemplifica-
tion and the job-focused to self-promotion. Another
classification was developed with different focuses:
job, initiative and relationship (Khilji, Zeidman, Drory,
Tirmizi, & Srinivas, 2010). The job-focused strategy
refers to serious attitude, expertise, professionalism,
reliability and experience exhibited in work. The
initiative-focused strategy means initiative at every
opportunity, activities outside the job and attention
to problems. In this sense, the initiative focus is slightly
close to self-promotion. The relationship-focused
strategy refers to expressing consent, demonstrating
positive attitude towards work and smiling to supervi-
sors and other colleagues. The relationship focus is
somewhat vague and has overlap with the job focus
in the regard of attitude towards work. In a study of
hoteliers’ impression management (Kandampully &
Hu, 2007), the relationship-focused strategy is inter-
preted as direct relationship with customers. These
so-called strategies with different focuses reflect the
nature (rather than content) of strategies, thus being
similar to other categories such as assertive and defen-
sive, or positive and non-positive. Furthermore, these
strategies are applicable to organisational settings,
rather than to service settings wherein the frontline
employees interact with customers.
Facing similar situations, different individuals might
employ different tactics of impression management
(Yilmaz, 2014). The selection of strategies in response
to certain situations might be influenced by culture
(Khilji et al., 2010). In societies characterised by large
power distance, ingratiation and self-promotion strat-
egies would be common practices among employees
in organisations (Pandey, 1986, as cited in Zaidman &
Drory, 2001). Apart from power distance, other dimen-
sions of culture such as the individualism-collectivism
dichotomy can also affect application of impression
management skills. People from an individualistic
culture tend to present an image of being indepen-
dent and self-reliant while a person from a collectivis-
tic culture might prefer to show politeness and
harmony (Zaidman & Drory, 2001). The influence of
culture on impression management is not critical for
the present study since the subject of research is
tour leaders from a single culture and the research
focus is their impression management strategies.
Methods
The present study takes its standpoint towards the
paradigm of constructivism (see Riley & Love, 2000).
The ontology of this paradigm is defined by relativism
regarding knowledge as socially constructed, local
and specific. The epistemology of constructivism is
explained by subjectivism arguing that the interaction
or coproduction of researcher and subject creates
knowledge. Some researchers tend to regard construc-
tivism as a main philosophy of interpretivism character-
ised by the aim of understanding the multiple realities
of the social world through comprehensive interpret-
ation of the data collected via the emic perspective
(Ayikoru, 2009). In qualitative studies, social phenom-
ena are understood not as absolute truth; instead, the
relevant understanding depends on the interpretation
of researcher (Guba & Lincoln, 1994, as cited in Slevitch,
2011). The interpretation is a subjective process,
 ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH 5

wherein the researcher offers individual interpretation interviews on “the interviewees’ own perspective”
of the realities constructed by informants on the basis (Torkar et al., 2011, p. 43).
of his or her values, interests or purposes (Slevitch, The interviews were conducted between April and
2011). Credibility in qualitative research is mainly an June 2013 by the second author, who was a full-time
issue of “personal and interpersonal skills (e.g. limiting tour leader in Macau. This identity facilitated the inter-
biases due to the presence of the researcher, develop- views by encouraging interviewees to regard the
ing trust with informants, and avoiding reactive effects interview as an opportunity for peer communication,
or selective perception)” (Henderson, 1991, as quoted thus enriching the information obtained. Furthermore,
in Decrop, 2004, p. 159). The data collection technique the following two measures also enhanced the com-
of semi-structured interview is believed to have high munication effectiveness: first, the interviewees were
validity as “interviewers can ensure that questions are encouraged to suggest their desirable venues or set-
understood by the interviewees by adapting the tings for interview, thus making them relaxed for an
wording, or probe to elicit more in-depth responses” effective communication; second, the interviewer
(Jordan & Gibson, 2004, p. 222). Apart from data played the role of a learner or apprentice, which stimu-
quality, validity refers to the degree of credibility of lated the interviewees’ enthusiasm for talking.
the interpretation, or the extent of making sense of A snowballing method was used to approach the
the textual data (Slevitch, 2011). In short, the validity interviewees. The interviews began with the inter-
of this study was ensured in the data collection and viewer’s fellow leaders and proceeded with their
interpretation processes. friends and acquaintances. Resultantly, 11 tour leaders
Semi-structured interview was adopted for data who had experience of working for tour operators
collection. The rationales of developing interview based in Macau were interviewed (see Table 2). Regard-
questions lie in that interviews are essentially purpo- ing the sample size in a qualitative study, considerable
seful conversations between the interviewer and sources suggest that the acceptable range is from 5 to
interviewees (Dexter, 1970, as cited in Jennings,
2010, p. 171), and the purpose is to answer research
questions (Torkar, Zimmermann, & Willebrand, 2011). Table 1. Structure of the interview questions.
Such conversations should revolve around “the Dimension Focus Source
central themes in the life world of the subjects and Cognition Relationship between tour Su et al. (2014)
seeks to cover both a factual and a meaning level” leaders’ images and
performance
(Kvale, 1996, as cited in Torkar et al., 2011, p. 43). Reasons for building Chiang and Chen
With the research questions and the guidelines relationship with tour (2014)
noted previously, this study formulated 14 questions members
Significance of good Yilmaz (2014);
(see Table 1), revolving around three aspects: cogni- impression Zaidman and
tion, application and effectiveness of impression Drory (2001)
management, which are three central themes of Application Experience and tour operation Authors
Appearance when conducting DePaulo (1992)
impression management of leaders. The three ques- tours
tions on cognition were developed to help intervie- Practice for relationship Chiang and Chen
wees to understand the concept of impression building (2014)
Skills for creating positive Chiang and Chen
management. The eight questions on application images (2014)
constituted the major part of interview sketch, and Ways to gain trust from tour Wong and Lee
these questions reflect the job crafting of tour members (2012)
Dealing with accidents and Wong and Lee
leaders, from the explicit aspects such as appearance risks (2012)
and presentation to the implicit issues exemplified Coping with conflicts Wong and Lee
by the use of various skills and experiences. The (2012)
Presentations skills Wong and Lee
third part asked three questions on self-evaluation (2012)
of the effectiveness of using impression manage- Effectiveness Effectiveness of impression Su et al. (2014)
ment skills, and to what an extent the effectiveness management strategies
Results of not using impression Authors
is affected by individual factors. While reflecting management strategies
the major concern of the present study, the structure Influence of personal styles on Yang et al. (2009)
of interview questions presents a natural flow, which the effectiveness of tour
operation
is consistent with the emphasis of qualitative
6 L. YAN AND H-K. HO

Table 2. Profile of the interviewees and information on the interviews.

Interviewee Sex Age Job Experience (years) Length (minutes) Venue
Coco F 23 Intern tour leader 0.5 61 Coffee shop
Anna F 30 Former tour leader 6 53 Coffee shop
Emma F 27 Former tour leader 6 37 Fast food shop
Karl M 28 Tour leader 5 49 Park
Emily F 31 Tour leader 8 46 Coffee shop
Julia F 28 Part-time tour leader 6 44 Coffee shop
Ashley F 30 Tour leader 2
Linda F 27 Beginner tour leader 0.5 39 Coffee shop
Laura F 28 Tour leader 1 40 Home
Kate F 38 Tour leader 17 43 Japanese restaurant
Jimmy M 25 Tour leader 5

50 participants (Dworkin, 2012). The specific size for a
given study depends on various issues, including data
quality, study scope, nature of topic and amount of
useful information from each participant (Morse,
2000, as cited in Dworkin, 2012). As noted previously,
the identity of the interviewer (second author) plus
the specific measures enhanced the quality and rich-
ness of data. Some criteria for selecting suitable partici-
pants were established. First, the interviewees should
consist of tour leaders at different stages of career,
including the early career, the experienced and the
advanced. Second, the interviewees should be
employed by different tour operators specialised in
organising outbound travels to Southeastern Asian
countries, which are popular destinations for package
tours sold in Macau.
In terms of sex, females accounted for 9 out of 11
interviewees, which turned out to be an imbalance
of gender in the sample. However, the inequilibrium
would not necessarily lead to gender bias since most
tour operation skills (including impression manage-
ment) of Macau’s tour leaders are not gender-specific
and their working skills are up to their trainers. The
trainer could be male and the apprentice female, or
vice versa. In so doing, the impression management
skills that trainees attained would not be gender-
bound in the long run. When presenting the results,
pseudonyms were used to protect the privacy of inter-
viewees, who agreed that their responses can be
quoted anonymously in the research output.
Qualitative studies can have an element of deduc-
tion, wherein theory is offered before observation
(Rhodes & Coomber, 2010). This study draws on
deductive thematic analysis to analyse the data col-
lected through interviews. Thematic analysis is “a
form of pattern recognition within the data, where
emerging themes become the categories for analysis”
(Fereday & Muir-Cochrane, 2006, p. 82). Deductive the-
matic analysis refers to the use of codes derived from
existing theories in the research area. All the codes
were derived from a comprehensive review of the
impression management literature. The deductive
analysis involves using a template consisting of
codes identified from literature and applying the
codes as “a means of organizing text for subsequent
interpretation” (Fereday & Muir-Cochrane, 2006, p. 83).
Results
The interviewees reported that they used a variety of
strategies to construct their images in tour operation.
Ingratiation
It is one of the most frequently used strategies
among the interviewees, who took advantage of
small talk to show their care for tour participants.
They would occasionally enquiry on accommodation
facilities, food quality and so on. Through chatting
with participants, a leader would present an image
of easy-going, which helps narrow the distance
with participants.
Remembering guest names is another skill for
ingratiation. During high seasons, leaders have many
package tour groups to lead, thus having difficulty in
remembering all names at the beginning. Accordingly,
they chose to remember some names first. A leader
managed to surprise certain guests by calling their
surnames at the first encounter. They achieved this
effect through inference, as Emily explained:
Although the list of guests does not include pictures you
might want to look at, you could find out such infor-
mation as their ages. For instance, if Mr Chen and Ms
Lee are the youngest two among the guests, you would
recognise at the sight of them.
Regarding guest names, another technique is selective
remembrance at the initial stage of tour. The leader
might try to remember at least one full name of

each family in the tour. Emily noted that the signifi-
cance of remembering guest names lies in that it
shortens the distance between leader and partici-
pants, and shows respect to the guests.
Praising tour members was also used as an ingra-
tiation skill. The interviewees explained that praising
is better than criticising. A convenient way of using
this skill is to compliment teenagers or youths on
travelling with their parents: “When facing a
family, you can tell parents that their children are
filial for accompanying family members for travel-
ing” (Julia).
Apart from the direct approaches noted previously,
the interviewees used some indirect approaches for
integration. They deliberately paid special attention
to certain guests such as children, seniors and girls.
They would show special caring for these guests in
the hope of gaining liking of the related others, as
Karl noted:
Building rapport with tour members begins with pleasing
children or seniors in the tour group. … When observing
your caring for the young or old, other members will trust
you and communicate with you. When facing lovers, I
managed to build rapport with the girl, not vice versa.
Pleasing a girl makes her boyfriend treat you favourably.
Regarding seniors, some interviewees employed a
special skill of ingratiation for showing concern,
namely, playing the role of offspring. Laura offered
an example:
When facing senior guests, you might as well behave like
their son or daughter as they wish. For instance, before
breakfast time you might wait outside their rooms to
say something like “Good morning!” or “How is your
sleep last night?” … Give a hand to them when getting
on and off the bus. Offer opinions when they have diffi-
culty in making a buying decision.
Self-promotion
To be viewed as competent and effective, the intervie-
wees would take every opportunity to show their
working ability as Jimmy mentioned:
If there are no rooms available, I would negotiate with the
hotel. Of course, I would do such things in the presence of
guests and let them see what I am doing. … When facing
such accidents as flight delay, I would walk back and force
between the airline and my guests. The guests could
notice me negotiating with the airline for compensation
such as bottled mineral water and meal coupon.
Considering females might be viewed as weak and
thus incapable of caring for a tour group, female
ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH 7
interviewees were very cautious for dress choice and
tended to dress in a neutral manner as Coco did:
I would not wear female specific clothes. I think a leader
should be able to do anything. But as a girl, I am afraid
of presenting an image of weakness. … Once depart-
ing, I have to be self-reliant and responsible for the
tour group, so I need a tough image … a masculine
image.
For female leaders, this neutral style of dressing is a
typical use of self-promotion.
Exemplification
The interviewees would demonstrate their readiness
to help others, integrity, self-sacrifice and moral
worthiness. When tour members have difficulty in
deciding whether to purchase certain commodities
at a destination, a leader tend to offer some advices.
Furthermore, they would show their sacrifice
through some activities outside their job but favoured
by tourists such as playing with children and helping
seniors when getting on or off. They would go a
further step to pay attention to such details as birth-
day, wedding anniversary, shopping plans and food
dislikes.
The interviewees exhibited their moral worthiness
by setting examples for the travel party, for instance,
abiding by traffic rules and following order of taking
seats. As Anna explained, tour participants would
follow suit, which is helpful for smooth tour operation.
Leaders’ moral worthiness could also be demon-
strated in dealing with accidents. As Kate mentioned,
once a tour she led encountered a traffic collision and
hardly before standing up she asked whether the tour
participants were hurt, which made the latter feel con-
solatory and comfortable. Recognising that the leader
put their safety prior to that of herself, the participants
appreciated the leader’s performance and were thus
tolerable towards the accident.
Intimidation
This tactic is used when tour participants make unrea-
sonable complaints, such as being critical about food
quality despite the fact of participating in an economic
tour. Karl offered examples in this regard:
The guests might pay a little [fee] but demand too much.
… some complained food quality and taste. … Some
others compared with their counterparts in other tour
groups. Under this circumstance, I would warn them ruth-
lessly that they paid less than the tour group with which
8 L. YAN AND H-K. HO
they compared. This is effective, and the choosy guys
would be silent soon to save faces.
Different warnings could be used when participants
complained about food quality. Karl warned partici-
pants that there would be no restaurant for dining if
they do not eat the unsatisfied meals since they
were travelling in a low population density area and
it would be difficult to find another restaurant in the
neighbourhood.
While the strategy of intimidation was used in the
above cases to offer some explanations for the unde-
sirable quality of food and thus to decrease com-
plaints, the tactic was also employed when tourists
were facing risks in relation to food and beverage.
This is exemplified by the following case of Karl:
When it comes to food, I would create a serious image.
Several years ago, there was an accident about a Hong
Kong tour group in Thailand. Having eaten some
uncooked seafood, 18 members saw a doctor. … It is
not that uncooked seafood cannot be eaten. You can
eat if your livers function very well.
Apparently, this warning aims to avoid possible acci-
dents caused by eating uncooked seafood. These
cases about food show that, in the tour setting, the
goal of using intimidation is not to make an
impression of being dangerous; instead, the goal is
to make the guest rational and cooperative with a
serious image.
Supplication
The interviewees would suggest that they need help
by showing the weak side. This skill appears to be
useful when they are facing angry guests. Karl rec-
ommended this strategy:
When dealing with a member who was angry with you,
you must say something such as “Please calm down,
sir” and meanwhile keep composure. Observing such
situations, other tour members would help you to talk
with the person and put pressure on him.
The interviewees showed their vulnerability to local
tough guides to solicit help from tour members;
they showed their weakness to seek a helper from
the tour group. The interviewees also used the suppli-
cation strategy to solicit understanding and thus to
avoid risks. This point could be understood from
Emma’s case:
When standing in front of the stalls of street vendors,
almost all the guests would ask me such questions as
“Leader, whether this stuff worth the money or not?”
Bearing this issue in mind, I would inform guests before
departure: “When you guys go shopping on the streets,
never ask me about the worthiness of commodities.
Because you visit the place only once and I will go
there many times. If the venders or shopkeepers recog-
nise me, they would beat me to death.”
The above quotation shows that Emma explained in
advance to guests about her dilemma in response to
enquiries on the quality of local produces or souvenirs:
positive answer is against her own will as the goods
are usually not as good as the venders claim while
negative answer might offend venders. As Emma
noted, the supplication skill is effective since the
guests would regard such announcements as kind
reminders. Meanwhile, guests would regard the
leader as an honest person.
Disclaimer
When tour participants might be exposed to unfavour-
able situations, leaders widely used the strategy of dis-
claimer through announcement prior to the
occurrence of undesirable circumstances. The com-
munity of Macau leaders shares a local term in this
regard, paichen (literally meaning immunisation injec-
tion), referring to “description of the worst situation in
advance” (Laura). The strategy was believed to be
effective in making participants psychologically
ready for unsatisfying situations, such as a waterfall
that is not as grand as promoted, a historic town
with inferior reception facilities and a hotel without
Wi-Fi connections. Specifically, Emily would tell partici-
pants that despite being one of the three largest
waterfalls in Japan, the Nachi Waterfall looked like
merely a water column, and thus suggested them to
appreciate the encompassing environment at arrival.
As for the second case about the historic town of
Pingyao (in Shanxi, China), Karl informed participants
that the reserved accommodation facility was court-
yard guest houses rather than star hotels. Regarding
the third case, Jimmy explained beforehand that Japa-
nese were so afraid of radiation that they would not
equip Wi-Fi facilities in hotels.
Thorough a prior announcement of undesirable
situations, the interviewees successfully conveyed
the latent meaning that the unsatisfying happenings
were irrelevant to the leader’s responsibility. The strat-
egy was reported to be effective since guests would
find out the actual conditions or situations were not
as bad as the leader described (often exaggerated),
which alleviated their dissatisfaction.

Justification
Allocating rooms to tour participants is a common but
not easy task for leaders. The room sizes could differ
from each other, which would result in participants’
complaints. Under this circumstance, a leader would
justify the allocation approach. Karl once explained
that, albeit in varying sizes, the reserved rooms were
better than those in the lower floors in terms of dec-
oration. This explanation justified the room allocation
approach, making the participants convinced.
Laura offered a case of justification about her
experience of leading tours to Taiwan. Round-the-
island trips were popular among group package tour-
ists: starting from Kaohsiung to Taipei, or vice versa.
Tourists had to spend several hours each day taking
buses to visit a different city. Some participants com-
plained that the time for travelling was more than
that for sightseeing. Laura persuaded them with the
reason that landscape en route was worthy of atten-
tion. She would deliberately remind participants to
appreciate the diversity of landscape outside the bus
windows. In doing so, she attempted to transform
the participants from outcome-oriented to process-
oriented (Lew & McKercher, 2006).
Excuse
The interviewees tended to make excuses for some
unexpected or unsatisfied circumstances. For instance,
in 2010 Karl led a tour to the Dongting Lake region in
Hunan, China. The itinerary included cruising the lake;
however, a drought significantly decreased the water
level, thus making the scheduled cruise unrealistic. Par-
ticipants complained that tour operation did not abide
by the schedule. Karl explained that the drought was
natural disaster, beyond the control of human being.
He further noted that news reports specified that it
was rainless in the past months. The mention of news
reports disclosed that he was making an excuse and
denying responsibility. Since he had already noticed
the local drought through mass media, it would be
possible to suggest the operator to adjust the schedule
and exclude the cruising activity during the drought
season. The tour operator is supposed to keep up
with update about destinations.
Enhancement
To a certain extent, with a photographer and a local
guide in the tour group, the leader has only a few
ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH 9
tasks to complete, as Emily noted. Accordingly,
leaders have to actively find something to do to high-
light the significance of their role. The interviewees
showed eagerness to arrange all for guests, for
example, entering a restaurant to ensure the avail-
ability of tables and seats, or “searching for the poss-
ible location of toilets because some tour members
would certainly ask” (Julia).
Appearance
The interviewees reached an agreement upon the part
played by uniform in tour operation, as exemplified by
the style of Laura’s working dress:
On the first and last days, I would abide by the regulations
of my company, wearing uniform. This is to show profes-
sionalism, namely, I am working rather than engaged in
leisure travel like you [tourists]. The uniform means that
I am leading the tour group and responsible for arrange-
ment and follow-up of all of your travel-related activities.
Apart from demonstration of the professionalism and
role of leader, uniform has other functions, for
instance, making leaders easily recognised by recep-
tion staff at resorts, restaurants and the like.
However, it is difficult to wear business attire in hot
days, and thus a leader would choose less formal
clothing in the middle of tours. The casual dress of
leaders has to abide by certain principles, for instance,
collared T-shirt and no fashion or lovely style.
Emotion
Smiling was regarded as a best practice of expressive
behaviours in tour operation. Interviewees reported
that a smiling face helps leaders to build rapport
with participants, and thus they would occasionally
smile when facing guests. They noted that a smile
on their faces conveyed a message that they were
happy with the job of leader. The control of emotions
was also regarded as an important issue. Emotion
control helped the interviewees to cope with
certain guests’ indifference to greetings as Emily
noted. Emotion control was also necessary to accom-
modate a few participants’ sense of superiority over
the leader. As Laura explained, such participant
could regard the leader as their attendant in the
trip once they purchased your service or carried
their identity (say, a boss) in daily life to the tour. In
the lack of emotion control, both job performance
and personal image could be negatively influenced,
as Linda noted.
10 L. YAN AND H-K. HO
Other nonverbal behaviours
Apart from appearance and emotion, nonverbal beha-
viours include certain body language used by the
interviewees, such as eye contact and avoidance of
undesirable behaviours. Eye contact was emphasised
for its significance in presentations as it helps the
leader to find out whether the audience were listen-
ing. If the guests do not listen, the leader could use
body posture or movement to attract attention. Fur-
thermore, the interviewees would monitor their own
behaviours and prudently avoid those undesirable
from the guest point of view, for instance, smoking
when staying with guests.
Discussion
The results show that the image-constructing strat-
egies employed by tour leaders are more complicated
than reflected in the extensively adopted framework
of Jones and Pittman (1982). The respondents used
a variety of impression management strategies in
tour operations. These tactics are not independent
to each other and there are certain links among differ-
ent strategies. The two points were discussed in more
details subsequently.
Use of strategies
The interviewees used a variety of impression man-
agement strategies, from defensive to assertive. Inves-
tigation of tour leader’s use of these strategies helps
identify many career-specific skills. A typical example
in this regard is interviewees’ use of ingratiation, the
skills of which include playing with children, compli-
menting teenagers and building rapport with a
male’s girlfriend. These efforts could be placed in the
category of indirect ingratiation. Direct ingratiation
was also employed by the interviewees, for instance,
playing the role of senior guests’ offspring and offer-
ing help whenever necessary. Such behaviours for
managing impressions could be regarded as deep
acting, referring to the efforts of employees who
manage to modify their inner feelings towards the
role, by contrast with surface acting which means
modification of facial expressions (Grandey, 2003).
This finding is in accordance with Wong and Wang’s
(2009) study on the labour skills of tour leader,
which concludes that both deep and surface acting
are employed in the job of tour leader. In role-
playing, the interviewees showed high degree of
sympathy on the senior tourists, using timely caring
to alleviate their discomforts in travel life. The findings
on the direct and indirect approaches of ingratiation
enhance understanding of the strategy.
The customer-contact staffs are required to be
looking right. The term “aesthetic labour” was devel-
oped in human resource studies (Nickson, Warhurst,
Witz, & Cullen, 2001) to capture the significance of
the dressing and appearance of frontline employees
to the company image. As a nonverbal tactic, appear-
ance plays a significant role in the service setting.
Appearance-related skills include wearing uniform at
the beginning and end of tour, wearing business
casual in the middle of tour and light make-up. Fur-
thermore, to present an image of being tough and
capable, the female leaders could adopt the degen-
derisation approach for dressing. Application of
these skills aims at creating an image of being pro-
fessional and reliable. The interviewees want to be
looking right for the role of leader.
The customer-contact employees in the tourism
and hospitality industries are typically required to
employ the skill of emotional labour for concerns on
service quality and company image. First used and
defined by Hochschild (2003), the term “emotional
labour” refers to showing the expected emotion for
certain types of work. As another nonverbal tactic,
emotion is important for the job of tour operation.
The goal of using emotion-related skills is to create
an impression of being easy-going, happy, rational
and tolerable. Smiling was used to show not only a
welcoming attitude towards tour participants but a
positive attitude towards the job of leader as well.
Apart from demonstration of positive or desirable
emotions, the control of negative emotions is also
important for tour operation. As Karl emphasised,
emotional intelligence is important for the position
of leader.
Links among strategies
The self-presentation strategies are not independent
to each other; instead, there are various links among
the tactics (see Figure 1). Excuses and justification
were related to attitude towards responsibility.
Excuses deny responsibility for negative outcomes,
and justification accepts some responsibility. Typical
uses of the two strategies were found in Karl’s cases.
He made excuses for unavailability of the tourist
activity of lake cruising. When allocating hotel rooms
to tour participants, he used justification through

Figure 1. Links among impression management tactics. Note: The tactics marked with the sign (*) were not adopted by the interviewees.
emphasis on better decoration of the reserved rooms.
He accepted some responsibility by offering an option
for the guests who complained about their room size.
The present study did not find use of apology that
means to confess to (full) responsibility. Furthermore,
disclaimer might also be related to responsibility,
albeit indirectly. As discussed in the cases of disclai-
mer, the plain waterfall, courtyard guest houses and
hotels without Wi-Fi all are local realities, which
suggest that these undesirable circumstances are irre-
levant to the responsibility of leaders or tour
operators.
Some supplication skills might be related to excuse
or disclaimer. As analysed previously, Emma showed
her weakness when facing the risk of offending local
venders if she points out the inferior quality of
goods or souvenirs they sold. The supplicant could
also be regarded as an excuse maker when denying
answering tour participants’ enquiries about the
quality of commodities. Furthermore, the specific sup-
plication skill might be related to disclaimer as Emma
informed guests in advance about her inconvenience
of response to enquiries.
Certain nonverbal behaviours appear to be compa-
tible with ingratiation. Smiling, appropriate dress and
the non-smoking behaviour contribute to a likeable
image. Similarly, self-promotion might be compatible
with enhancement. Users of self-promotion call atten-
tion to their accomplishments, and adopters of
enhancement attempt to manifest that their accom-
plishments are better than the observers might have
ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH 11
thought. The interviewees were eager to show their
hardworking and always tried to find something to
do to present a busy image; meanwhile, they wanted
their efforts or accomplishments to be positively per-
ceived. Furthermore, exemplification might be related
to enhancement and self-promotion. The exemplifica-
tion skills of showing readiness to help others and pre-
senting such characters as integrity, self-sacrifice and
moral worthiness should be helpful for enhancing
and promoting the leader’s image. Typical application
of such skills can be found in the case of Kate who
regarded the safety of tour participants as priority
after the occurrence of a traffic accident.
There could also be negative associations between
certain strategies. First, enhancement and self-pro-
motion appeared to be at the opposite of sandbag-
ging and self-handicapping (neither used by the
interviewees), respectively. Concealing one’s ability
to lower others’ expectations and producing obstacles
to success to avoid others’ doubt on one’s ability are at
the heart of sandbagging and self-handicapping. The
leaders would not adopt the two non-positive strat-
egies; instead, they tended to use any opportunities
to showcase their ability through applying the strat-
egies of self-promotion and enhancement. This
feature explains why Jimmy performed his nego-
tiations with frontline staff of hotels and airlines in
the presence of guests, why Coco dressed in a mascu-
line manner, why Emily actively sought chances of
doing something and why Ashley prepared answers
for participants’ enquires on destinations.
12 L. YAN AND H-K. HO
Furthermore, the image constructed via ingratia-
tion is incompatible with that via intimidation. While
ingratiation results in a friendly and likable image, inti-
midation leaves observers a less favourable
impression. This distinction explains Laura’s playing
the role of offspring of participants and Karl’s
showing concerns and building rapport with guests
on the one hand; and on the other, Karl’s warning
on participants’ complaints on food quality. Regarding
such incompatible strategies as ingratiation and inti-
midation (Jones & Pittman, 1982), the use of one
tactic does not mean rejection of the other. Karl’s
experiences show that for smooth operation of tour,
leaders might use these strategies which bring
about opposite impressions. The cases of using intimi-
dation were all derived from male interviewees, which
echoed previous studies that reported a higher use of
intimidation among males than females (Sadler,
Hunger, & Miller, 2010).
Implications and limitations
The tactics presented in this study shed light on future
studies on impression management of tourism and
hospitality employees. Based on findings of the
present study, future studies could go beyond the sim-
plification of impression management. The five-
dimension framework developed by Jones and
Pittman (1982) was successful in initiating studies of
impression management; however, the framework
appears to be simplified when recent studies on self-
presentation tactics are taken into account. Future
studies are suggested to consider various tactics of
self-presentation, including the neglected aspect of
nonverbal behaviours. Furthermore, the diverse strat-
egies of impression management might have links
to each other, and future empirical studies are rec-
ommended to test the various associations between
strategies.
The research results have implications for the travel
agency business in terms of recruiting and training
leaders. Recruitment of leaders is supposed to pay
attention to test of emotional intelligence, which is
critical for the job of tour leader. In training leaders,
importance should be attached to understanding
and use of various impression management tactics,
which are critical for successful tour operation. Fur-
thermore, while many nonverbal strategies are
related to body language, leaders might not be
aware that unconscious or inappropriate use of body
language might communicate negative messages.
Accordingly, comprehensive understanding of posi-
tive and negative body language (Bhatia, 2012)
should be a focus for training leaders.
A limitation of this study is that the reasons why
certain strategies (apology, entitlement, basking,
blasting, self-handicapping and sandbagging) were
not adopted by the interviewees remain unknown.
The selection mechanism of impression manage-
ment strategies might be worthy of attention in the
future.
Conclusion
Using a qualitative approach, the present study dis-
closed the diversity and complexity of tour leaders’
self-presentation tactics. The interviewees reported
use of various strategies of impression management,
from the defensive to assertive. The defensive tactics
they adopted include excuse, justification and disclai-
mer, excluding apology, self-handicapping and sand-
bagging. The assertive strategies they used consist
of ingratiation, exemplification, self-promotion, suppli-
cation, intimidation and enhancement, excluding enti-
tlement, basking and blasting. Furthermore, the
nonverbal behavioural strategies they used comprise
appearance, emotions and other expressive beha-
viours. These strategies could be placed into the asser-
tive category as the related skills were used to
construct rather than restore images.
As an important means for building relationship
with tour participants, ingratiation was extensively
used in various forms, from praising and greeting to
small talks on food and accommodation, and remem-
bering guests’ names. Also widely used is the tech-
nique of disclaimer; through pre-announcement, this
proactive approach makes guests prepared for the
forthcoming unfavourable situations, thus signifi-
cantly decreasing complaints and dissatisfaction.
When disclaimer malfunctions, a leader might resort
to excuse by drawing attentions to external factors.
However, excuse is not a good practice for dealing
with complaints (Bhatia, 2012). Instead, apology (not
used by the interviewees) is recommended if the
unfavourable circumstance is caused by the tour oper-
ator’s failure in keeping up with destination updates
and the like. Excuse should be distinguished from jus-
tification, which was exemplified in aspects such as
room allocation and transportation arrangements.
While excuse denies responsibility, the purpose of jus-
tification is to offer acceptable reasons for unsatisfied
behaviours.

Exemplification was insufficiently used by intervie-
wees. Apart from serving guests beyond a leader’s job
responsibility, the technique is involved in setting
examples for the travelling party. In this sense, exem-
plification has a role to play in educating group
package tourists in terms of behavioural codes.
Chinese outbound tourists’ deviant behaviours were
noticed in recent years (Loi & Pearce, 2012; Tham,
2016); diminishing those negative behaviours in out-
bound and domestic travels is up to many factors,
including leaders’ interpretation and demonstration
of civilised and decent behaviours. Through deliberate
use of exemplification, a leader could set moral and
behavioural examples for participants. Also less used
is the tactic of intimidation, which is useful for
dealing with unjustified requirements like those on
food quality in economic tours and for preventing
occurrence of accidents through warning on issues
such as eating uncooked seafood. However, this
tactic is seldom used by female interviewees. In on-
the-job training, female leaders should be encouraged
to use this skill.
Self-promotion and enhancement are necessary to
enhance the image of leader. To present a reliable
image, interviewees deliberately showcased their
efforts in striving for benefits and compensations for
the guests. The female interviewees’ degenderised
dress style is another evidence of self-promotion.
Enhancement is helpful for rectifying the vagueness
of the leader role through frequent attempts in
finding something to do for guests. The use of this
technique discloses a job characteristic of leaders,
that is, being involved in considerable unspecified
tasks.
There are various links among strategies of
impression management. One type of link is positive
association between strategies. Excuse, disclaimer and
justification reflect different attitudes towards responsi-
bility and thus might be related to each other. Self-pro-
motion and enhancement also have a positive
connection. Again, nonverbal strategies such as
emotion might be relevant to ingratiation. The other
type of link is negative association between strategies.
The incompatible strategies are exemplified by suppli-
cation and intimidation or by self-promotion and sand-
bagging. These findings add to understanding of the
intra-relationships of self-presentation tactics.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH 13
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