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In an age which is subject to deep and constant
change, communication is of prime importance.
Communication is a conscious or unconscious, willing
or unwilling phenomenon through which emotions and
ideas are expressed in the form of verbal and
nonverbal messages (Berko
and Wolvin,
1998).
The messages are then sent, received and perceived.
Investigations show that about 75% of our daily time
is in one way or the other spent in contact or
communication with others. For this reason,
everyone’s quality of life is affected by the
quality of his or her relations with others. All of
us enjoy the same kind of opportunities in our work
place but only people who speak well, express their
ideas clearly, and can establish appropriate and
effective relations with others progress rapidly and
win the respect and appreciation of others (Yahyai
and Tavili, 2006).Communication is a collection of
skills but the most important aspect of it is
understanding the view points of our interlocutors
and putting our ideas over to them. The ability to
establish good relations increases our chance of
successful communication and helps us in job
promotion. Since, tour guides are in constant touch
with people, they should be able to establish good
public relations both through verbal and nonverbal
communication. They should also be flexible, because
they deal with people from different cultures with
different customs. Therefore, a tour guide is judged
by tourists not only based on his/her speaking
ability but also by his/her behavior and movements.
A group of expressions are used to refer to this
subject including: body language, speaking by the
movements of head and hands, and nonverbal behavior,
in general. Therefore, the foundation of a tour
guide’s success in attracting tourists’ satisfaction
is based on establishing a good and effective
communication with tourists. This fact highlights
the importance of communication in putting the
clients first. In this article, an attempt is made
to show the importance of nonverbal communication
methods and the role that tour guide can play in
attracting tourists’ satisfaction by appealing to
these methods.
Keywords:
the tourist industry, the tour leader, human
communication, verbal communication, nonverbal
communication.
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