Outbound travel by Chinese citizens has grown
rapidly in recent years, with 40.95 million Mainland
Chinese travelling outside China in 2007. It is
predicted that by 2020 China will become the fourth
largest country of tourist origin in the world. When
travelling overseas, most Chinese holidaymakers join
group tours escorted by Chinese-speaking local
guides. These tour guides serve as the main point of
contact between destination countries and the
Chinese visitors. Despite the importance of the tour
guides' job for the Chinese market, limited academic
studies have been conducted on Chinese-speaking tour
guides in general, and on tour guides' intercultural
competence (IC) in particular. This book provides
insights into what constitutes the IC of tour
guides, what factors are associated with
intercultural competence, and how the tour guides'
IC impacts on the guided tour experience. The book
is useful to tour guides escorting Chinese tour
groups, and to students and researchers in tourism
studies or anyone else who are interested in tour
guiding and tourism research.