HỒ CHÍ MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF

FOREIGN LANGUAGE – INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY


FACULTY OF TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY

Lecturer: Mr. Mã Xuân Vinh

Group 4
1. Nguyễn Hải Duy
2. Trương Thị Yến Nhi
3. Phan Thị Hoàng Oanh
4. Lưu Gia Huy
5. Lê Minh Tuấn Anh
6. Trần Nữ Phương Khuê
7. Lưu Nguyễn Duy Quí
Client and Escort
Psychology
 Table of Content
1. Managing Group Behavior

2. Strategies for Managing a Tour Group

3. Cultural Sensitivity

4. Some Cultural Specifics

5. Dealing with Fellow Workers

6. Preventing Escort Burnout

7. Summary
 1. Managing group behavior

1.3 The
1.1 High 1.2 The Flock
Regression
expectation Factor Syndrome
 1. Managing Group Behavior

Group behavior is shaped by

powerful psychological forces.
Through understanding these
forces, a tour manager can turn
them to his or her advantage. Here
are three patterns you will
probably encounter:
1.1 High expectation

•Tour participants bring with

them high expectations.
•To purchase a tour is a
decision of great consequence
in the average person’s life.
•The money spent and the
decisions made lead
vacationers to expect a good
time and clear value.
 •Tour participants quickly adapt to group
thinking as they seek cues to correct. One
amusing side effect can be a sort of herd instinct

1.2 THE FLOCK or “flock factor.”

FACTOR
•Group cohesiveness carries significant
advantages. Influenced by welcoming people
and a sensitive tour conductor, a group quickly
takes on the kind of easy-going attitude that will
make the tour pleasant and succesful.
 1.3 The Regression Syndrome

The tour conductor will be both father and mother to

adoring but occasionally unruly “kids.”
2. Strategies for Managing a Tour Group
2.1 A Tour Manager Must Be Fair

A tour direction must be parcel out attention

equally to all tour members.

A tour leader shouldn’t only interact with a

group of members of the tour.
 2.2 A Tour Manager Must Praise a Tour Group's
Behavior

–You must acknowledge, praise and reward appropriate client behavior in the order for successful
tour. On a journey it's important and praiseworthy for being on time. If one member of the tour is
delayed, it will affect the other members and affect the time to visit and eat.
 2.3 A Tour Manager Must Exceed the Client's
Expectations

–Tour planners should keep a few pre-planned locations and then encourage their company's tour
managers to add suprise stops. It is the best way to meet and even surpass the lofty expectations of
a tourist group.
2.4 A Tour
•Not every trip is as convenient as you want, there will be small
Manager Must Be glitches in time or changes in something
Flexible
 2.5 A Tour Manager Must Be Firm When Facing
Disruptive Behavior

– A tour manager must be firm when facing discruptive behavior, different forms of which may
occur, Mancini (1996) distinguishes the following typically discruptive behavior:
 The chronically late

Know-It-Alls

Bores, chronic complainers

 2.6 A Tour Manager Must Encourage Client "Adulthood"

Use tour member’s name when speaking to them Have a brief conversation with each tour
in order to relate to them as individuals. member, if possible, on the first day on the tour.

Give the clients lists of recommended Find out from each client about
places to eat and things to do during their his or her area of interest
spare time
2.7 A Tour Manager Must
Exercise Leadership

•A strong first impression can be create

by making good eye-contact, having a
ready smile, and perhaps giving a
welcoming handshake.
 3. Cultural Sensitivity

3.1 Ethnocentrism and Stereotyping 3.2 Perspectives for Avoiding Cultural Insensitivity
3.1 Ethnocentrism and Stereotyping

•Ethnocentrism is defined as the belief

that one's own nationality or ethnic
group is superior to all others.
Stereotyping, the tendency to believe
that an unvarying pattern or manner
marks all members of a group.
 3.2 Perspectives for Avoiding Cultural Insensitivity
3.2.1 The "Rightness" or "Wrongness" of Certain
Practices Varies from Culture to Culture.

Tour managers mustn't impose their values on others. They must realize
that cultural values are often neither right nor wrong, only different.
Cultural customs sometimes affect a tour manager quite directly
3.2.2 Cultural Values Are in
Constant Flux and Can
Become Rapidly Outdated.
3.2.3 Cultural
•Individuals may not fit any predictable
Values Vary cultural pattern at all. A tour conductor
should avoid any oversimplifications about
Within culture, since it's always multi-layered.
•On the other hand, certain generalizations
Regions of about groups, when valid and useful, can be
justified. In these matters, let honest
the Same experience, yours and your company's, be
your guide.

Country
 4. Some Cultural Specifics

4.1 Initial Contact 4.2 Punctuality

4.3 Dining 4.4 Miscellaneous Factors

5. Dealing
with Fellow
Workers
5.1 Flight Attendants 5.2 Drivers
 5.2.1 A few suggestions can help you maximize the driver-escort relationship:

If feasible and appropriate, driver and escort should eat meals together. Clients will
admire the friendship that exists between the two of you. Eating meals together will
also give both of you a little respite from client attention.
Introduce the driver at the very beginning of the tour. Refer to him or her frequently.
Praise a fine driving performance at the day's end.
Each evening or over breakfast, the two of you should discuss upcoming activities,
routes, and responsibilities. Don't throw in an unexpected tour event without
informing the driver first.
If the route is familiar to you but new to the driver, it's perfectly all right for you to
give him or her directions. Do it subtly, though, and off the microphone.
5.3 Step-On Guides

•Acknowledge the guide's

expertise and then pay
attention like everyone else.
In most instances the tour
manager should stay with
the group, even though
someone else is in charge.
6. Preventing Escort Burnout
6.1 Sensitivity to One's Own Needs:
6.2. Awareness of Body Rhythms:
• You may consider yourself a morning person or you may work better at night. Whatever the
case, you must closely monitor how your body clock affects your job performance.
• No factor affects one's body clock more dramatically than jet lag. Once thought to be primarily
a psychological reaction to lengthy air travel, jet lag is now known to be a physiological
phenomenon. Crossing time zones wreaks havoc on hormone levels, blood components,
digestion, and overall mental alertness.
Some traditional strategies to deal with jet lag are listed below:
 Try to avoid hectic activities the day before your trip.
 Eat lightly and drink plenty of water while in flight. Avoid alcohol or sleep medication.
 Get as much rest as possible on the plane, especially when your group is sleeping or watching a movie.
 Shortly after departure, reset your watch to your destination's time.
 After traveling west to east (the toughest for most), get outside early the first morning, but avoid late
afternoon exposure to light. East-to-west travel requires staying outdoors in the late afternoon and for at
least a few hours in the morning. This helps to reset those rhythms cued by sunlight.
 Keep active on your arrival day, but try to get to bed early.
6.3. Home-Duplicating Patterns:
 Eat the same quantity and types of food, when possible, as you do at home. Traveling should not be an excuse to
overindulge.
 Try to work some sort of exercise program into your daily routine. Use the hotel's health club facility.
 Make friends among those with whom you work. A network of out-of-town "allies" does much to cushion the
potential loneliness of escorting. Telephone your friends and family back home on a regular basis, for they miss
you, too.
 Don't obsessively overwork.
 Make your hotel room an extension of your home. Bring a few personal mementos with you that have no purpose
except to comfort you. Call room service occasionally so you can dine in a relaxed setting free of interruptions.
6.4. GUARDING YOUR
PRIVACY:
• It's not enough that you're the "mother" and "father" to tour
members. You play another role as well. To the group,
you're an instant celebrity, a "personality," a star. They want
to talk to you, to find out everything about you, to have
their picture taken with you. They may even ask you to
autograph their itineraries.
• You should deal with this loss of anonymity with tact,
warmth, and a sense of humor. This kind of attention comes
with the job. But you should also protect yourself from the
stress that this little dose of fame brings.
 Carve out blocks of off-duty time, if possible, to enjoy attractions that you want to see.
 During free time, eat your meals in restaurants other than the ones in your hotel, or use room service.
 Set aside moments to simply enjoy being alone in your room.
 For companionship, rely on friends you make in each city your tour visits (this will be easier if you
specialize in one itinerary) or on your driver.
 Unless you don't mind a constant stream of conversation, avoid sitting among clients on a
motorcoach, in a restaurant, or on a plane, even when you're on duty. Stay close and visible, though.
They do need to feel that you are there for them.
 When off-duty, dress casually. The group so associates you with a uniform or professional attire that
you'll be able to walk right through a client-filled lobby without being recognized at all--one of the
more amusing phenomena of the tour business.
7. Summary:

•Tour conductors face powerful psychological

forces when managing a group. Its members
have high expectations, wish to be a part of the
group, and may revert to childlike behavior. To
manage a group effectively, a tour director must
be fair, praising, firm, flexible, encouraging of
adult behavior, and willing to exceed expectations
and to lead. To be culturally sensitive, tour
managers must avoid ethnocentrism and
stereotyping. They need to be aware of the
variety and ever-changing nature of cultural
values. They must also remain alert to the needs
of their fellow workers as well as to their own
physiological and psychological reactions to the
tour-leading profession.
Thank you