Cross-Cultural Aspects of Tourism and Hospitality

Cross-Cultural Aspects of Tourism and Hospitality offers a comprehensive guide to the influence of culture on customers as well as service providers, affecting both the demand and the supply sides of the industry – services marketing and consumer behaviour, management, organisational behaviour, and human resource management.

This book takes research-based approach, critically reviewing the findings of papers on cross-cultural aspects of tourism and hospitality and how these influence the attitudes and behaviours of the customer (e.g., a tourist or a guest), employee, and the manager. Individual chapters provide a diversified perspective to include intercultural competence and intercultural sensitivity, uncertainty avoidance and risk aversion, context in communication, power distance, indulgence and restraint, time orientation, gender egalitarianism, assertiveness, individualism and collectivism, performance orientation, and humane orientation. This new edition has been updated to include:

• New content on technological advancements such as the impact of advanced technologies such as AI in general, the generative AI, and service robots, particularly in the context of service encounters and interactions in tourism and hospitality, together with cross-cultural aspects of sustainable tourism.
• New international case studies throughout to show the application of theory.
• New problem-solving tasks, chapter takeaways, and checkpoints in each chapter to aid understanding.

This will be essential reading for all students, lecturers, researchers and practitioners, and future managers in the fields of tourism and hospitality.

Erdogan Koc is Professor of Services Marketing and Management at Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul, Türkiye. He received his BA in Communication Studies from the University of Istanbul, MBA from the Cardiff Business School, and PhD in Business and Management from Oxford Brookes University. He has extensively published in top-tier journals, such as Tourism Management, the International Journal of Human Resource Management, the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Current Issues in Psychology, the Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, the International Journal of Intercultural Relations, and the Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management, among others. He serves on the editorial boards and acts as a referee for several high-ranking journals. He has published three books and more than 20 chapters in the area of tourism and hospitality. As well as his research and academic experience, he provides company training for a wide range of businesses, and has management experience with reputable brands. Professor Koc was ranked by Stanford University among the most influential scientists in the world both in 2023 and 2024.