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The Role and Importance of Communication Skills toTourism Sector

Introduction

This chapter looks at the primary aspects of communication skillswhich are a lifeline of professionals in their personal and careerdevelopment. This chapter also plays the role of pillars in thearea of my research. Good communication skills determine one’spersonality. An individual with good communication skills can makea world of difference in his career prospects. To achieve one’sgoal, professionals are required to know about the importance ofcommunication skills. Thus, this chapter deals with the meaningof communication, the barriers of communication, thedistinguishing features of the four methods of communication,effective communication, skills and the types of skills requiredby the industry, etc.

Communication skills

"We all use language to communicate, to express ourselves, to get our ideas across,and to connect with the person to whom we are speaking. When a relationship isworking, the act of communicating seems to flow relatively effortlessly. When arelationship is deteriorating, the act of communicating can be as frustrating as climbinga hill of sand." Chip Rose, attorney and mediator

Due to the advanced techonology, organizations decentralize and perform their business tasks by teams. Memebers of team must be able to work joinly and identify problems, analyse alternatives and recommend sloutions. In order to perform the tasks efficiently they must be able to communicate their ideas in a pesuasive manner to others. To work as an effcient team player and deal with subrodinates, and build up better relationship with seniors, cl.ients, customers and colleagues effective communication skills are necessary. “Your ability to communicate is an important tool in your pursuit of your goal,

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whether it is with your family, your co-workers or your clients and customers” Brown, Les

The characteristics of communication:

Communication is systemic: every component of the process such as source, the enviornment, the goal, the medium, the nature of the message, the receiver, the feedback are all influenced by one another. For example, if the listener is not attentive or not interested in listening to the speaker,the speaker will not be able to communicate effectively, when an inappropriate channel is chosen the message may not be received by the audience as inended and barriers in communication like noise etc., may affact the whole process of communication.

Communication is an act of dynamic process, its process always changes and always in motion. A process means a series of actionswthout beginning or endings. A process involves a time dimensionswith cause and effects as characteristics.The act of communicationis subject to change when communication occures. Thus the concept of ‘change’ becomes an important element.

Good communication skills are necessary for individuals orindividual organizations to establish coalition and determine andcooperate with one another for a common purpose. Such skills canreduce misunderstandings, errors, frustrations and conflicts inone’s life. First and foremost, to develop communication skillsone has to understand what communication is, how we communicate,and the methods of communication. These are important when oneworks in team or group.

Communication is both interaction and transaction: The two personsinvolved in communication: the sender and the receiver exchangeand share their ideas, information, knowledge, thoughts andmeanings. They also and influence each other during the process ofcommunication

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1. What is communication?

Communication (from Latin commūnicāre, meaning "to share") isthe activity of conveying information through the exchange ofthoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, visuals,signals, writing, or behavior. It is the meaningful exchangeof information between two or more living creatures.

In simple term communication is defined as speaking or writing ortransmitting a message to another person, but in a broader sense,communication is really much more than that Communication shouldensure that the intended message is received by the targetaudience and understood and responded as the sender intended.

Communication is transmission of information and meaning from one ora group of individual. The main purpose of communication is theconveyance of meaning since it is the vital element of communication.The communication process becomes successful only when the receiverunderstands the idea as intended by the sender. Both the sender andthe receiver must agree not only on the information transmitted butalso the meaning of the information.

In a Process of Communication there are seven elements involved that one mustknow in order to study the activity of communication. The following are the key elements that constitute the process of communication: a. source or the sender, b. audience or receiver, c. goal or purpose, d. message or the content,e. medium or channel and, f. feedback. g.enviornment

1. Source or the Sender or the Transmitter is the one who initiates the process of communication

2. Audience or Receiver is the person(s) for whom the communication is intended

3. Goal or Purpose is the sender's reason for communicating, thedesired resultof the communication

4. Message/ Content is the information conveyed5. Medium /Channel is the means or method used for conveying the

message

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6. Feedback is the receiver's response to the communication as observed bythe sender

7. Environment /Context is the background in which the communication takesplace.

The following diagram illustrates clearly how communication takesplace.

Fig.1. http://image.slidesharecdn.com/02-communicationprocess-110614145731- phpapp01/95/slide-11-728.jpg?1308081798

Source or the Sender or the Transmitter is the one who initiatesthe process of communication to another person or a group ofpeople. The sender must have a clear purpose of communication andthe target audience. In other words, the sender has to decide to whomand why he has to send a message. The process of converting the ideasor thoughts into symbols is called encoding. For effectivecommunication the sender has to select an appropriate channel likeface-to- face talk, or e-mails to transmit his message and receives afeedback from the receiver i.e. the response from the receiver toensure whether the intended message was received and interpretedcorrectly.

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Audience in other words is the receiver of the message; he can bean individual or a group of people to whom the message isintended. Once the message is sent, it is the responsibility ofthe receiver to receive the message and interpret it if thecommunication is to take place. The process of translating thesymbols into ideas and interpreting the message is called decoding.Message must be accurately decoded and reconstructed by therecipient for an effective communication.

Channel is the method of communication that includes face to face,telephone, pager, written, radio, email and video communication.Communication can take place through the means of visual, auditoryand olfactory formats, and tactile may or may not be used. Thechoice of the chanel depends on factors such as urgency of themessage, availability and effectiveness of a medium, and therelationship between the two communicants. However a skilledcommunicator may know which channel would be the most appropriateto suit his expectation.

Message is the idea, thought or feeling that the sender wantsthe receiver to know. The message is encoded or in other wordsconverted into verbal and non - verbal symbols which will beunderstood by the receiver.

Message, on the other hand, can be communicated by sensory meanssuch as sight, sound, touch, smell and taste. For example, if onewants to convey affection to another person, he can use variousmodes of conveyance or combination of different methods. He cansay, “I like you” (sound). He can give a hug (touch). He can winkan eye (sight). He can feed a chocolate (taste) or else he cangive a rose flower (smell). Thus, he can creatively select themost suitable mode to convey his message.

Feedback: This is the lifeline skill of effective communication,it comprises both verbal and non-verbal messages of others and

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helps one to evaluate how the message conveyed has been understoodand responded to it. It is essential to build up mutualunderstanding about the message. In a face to face communicationwith our audience, we can use body language and ask questions toensure the understanding of the message. When communicatingthrough writing, we can determine the success of our communicationthrough the receiver’s response. Feedback can also be obtainedthrough a process called ‘self-monitoring’ (Hargie et al 2004).Self- monitoring means assessing his or her own communication andbehavior by themselves in a social encounter to ascertain thedegree of impact on others. A skilled- communicator is always abetter self-monitor who regularly analyzes and regulates hisbehavior according to other person’s response. Thus, feedbackallows us to measure how successful we were at our communicationwhich created an opportunity for us to learn our shortcomings andadjust ourselves for future communication.

Enviornment: enviornment is one of the important factors thatcan determine the quality of communication process. Itconstitutes cicumstances, time and context. For exampl, acommunication that occures in a pleasant and a comfortableenviornment may be better while a communication in a noisy anduncomforatable enviornment may be less effective. Any barriersof communication like noise may hinder the flow of communication.

Circumstance: One’s position, phychological condition ,relationship with one another etc., are the examples ofcircumstances. For example, if the relationship between twopersons at workplace is not sound ,ther will be a barrier incommunication.

Time: An skilled communicator knows the appropriate time,thelength of time, etc., for effective communication. For example, animportant information that needs to deliver at a right time is givenlate, or too early does not serve any purpose to the receiver.

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Context: context determines the speaker’ encoding and the receiver’sencoding and the interpretation of both. Context plays an importantrole in communication process. It involves the physicalsurroundings, the occasion when communication occurs, the time,number of people present, noise level and other variables thataffect both the encoding and decoding of the message. The meaningof a communication in a specific context affects a certainprobable interpretation. For example, the utterance, ‘I’ve got abug’, can be interpreted by two software engineers in twodifferent ways compared to the utterance of a sneezing person.Context also helps determine the tone and style of ourcommunication. It helps bridge one’s relationship with hisaudience, the culture of his organization and his generalbackground.

Noise can affect the accuracy and effectiveness of communication.It can be defined as anything that interferes or distorts themeaning of a message. It is a common and unavoidable source ofcommunication. Noise being one of the barriers of communicationcan be influenced by psychological, semantics, environmental,demographic, disability related and organizational barriers.Semantics deal with language or cultural differences which distortor interfere with the meaning of the message. An effectivecommunicator can understand the basic values, assumption andmotivation of other person. Cultural aspects too impacts oncommunication. They are explored under the topic of culturalawareness of communication in the following paragraphs. Further,choice of words or language, a sender encodes in his message mayaffect the quality of communication as language being a symbol andsigns of thoughts, feelings, intentions or motivations;misinterpretation or distortion of meaning may take place.

Barriers to Effective Communication

"A barrier to communication is something that keeps meanings from meeting. Meaning barriers exist between all people, making communication much more difficult than most people seem to

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realize. It is false to assume that if one can talk he can communicate. Because so much of our education misleads people into thinking that communication is easier than it is, they become discouraged and give up when they run into difficulty. Because they do not understand the nature ofthe problem, they do not know what to do. The wonder is not that communicating is as difficult as it is, but that it occurs as much as it does."

- Reuel Howe, theologian and educator

Communication barriers are the difficulties involved in theprocess of communication which distort the meaning of the messagebeing properly understood by the receiver, barriers prevent thecommunication from being effective, and can cause a lot oftroubles in a formal or informal situations. Since effectivecommunication is not feasible without the proper understanding ofbarriers, it is necessary to identify them and avoid suchbarriers. Communication barriers can pose challenges to effectivecommunications. They are as follows:

Semantic barriers: semantic barriers in other word are languagebarriers which are related to different languages, words,pictures, actions, poor vocabulary etc. In simple expression itpertains to or arising from different meanings of words or othersymbols. Language or linguistic ability may act as a barrier tocommunication. However, when communicating in the same language,the terminology used in a message may not act as a barrier if itis not fully understood by the receiver(s). Language barriers area common challenge particularly in an international businesssetting. For example, when native speakers communicate, theyoften do not realize is that their own way of speaking thatcreates the greatest barrier to effective communication, and it isno that the other person’s accent. Semantic barriers may cause dueto the barriers of age, education, cultural background, words withmultiple meanings, technical terms, pronunciation, stress, onwords, similar sounding words like adjectives, adverbs etc, canconvey different meanings.

Organizational barriers: organizational barriers are caused byorganizational policy, rules and regulations, status relationship

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in organization, structure of organization, lack of organizationalfacilities, wrong choice of channel, delay made in the movement ofthe information, misinterpretation, lack of understanding,negligence, filtrations at every level etc., affect he efficiencyand quality of work. Improving communication is the responsibilityof all educated person. Global communication increases theefficiency and quality of work.

Psychological barrier: the psychological state of the receiverwill influence how the message is received. For example, if aperson has worries or stress, he may be preoccupied with hispersonal concerns and will not be receptive to the message. Lackof attention, poor retention, and distrust of communication,mental disturbance, fixed ideas, and premature evaluation cancause barriers for effective communication.

Emotional barriers: an emotional individual may not be able tocommunicate well. If someone is angry, hostile, resentful, joyful,or fearful, or nervous such person may be preoccupied withemotions may not be able to receive the intended message.

Physical distraction: a bad cellular phone line, noisy environmentcan affect communication process. Also, written documents such asemail, letters have grammatical errors spelling errors, receiversmay not be able to comprehend the message due to physicalappearance. Bright light, glare on computer screen, loud noise,excessively hot or cold in workplaces or physical ailments andlack of provision for feedback may also hamper communication.

Personal barriers: personal barriers cause due to various reasonssuch as attitudes of superiors, fear of challenging the authority,underestimating of subordinates, ignoring juniors, insisting onfollowing proper channel or protocol, unwillingness tocommunicate, lack of proper incentive, poor listening, egoism,emotion, selective perception,

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Cultural barriers: cultural barrier is a widely seen barrier incommunication. Ignorance of each other’s culture can make usskeptic and one may shy away from expressing himself.

2. Methods of Communication

Communication occurs through the following elements.

a. Verbal communication

b. Written communication and

c. Non- verbal communication

d. Visual communication

Verbal communication:

“Employers surveyed in 2007 by Office Team rated verbal communication skills as the second most important soft skill in demand among administrative staff at their companies. The ability to write for business ranked sixth.” Source: Fitting In, Standing Out and Building Remarkable work Teams. "Verbal communication is that mediumof expression that makes use of words. It is governed by the rulesof the language that the used words are in."

Effective Verbal Messages:

1. Are brief, succinct, and organized

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2. Are free of jargon

3. Do not create resistance in the listener

According to an old saying, ‘It is not what you say; it is howyou say it that counts.’ Verbal communication is basically a kindof communication which uses words. Careful choice of wordsdetermines how successful we are in conveying our message. However,communication will be ineffective without non-verbal elementssuch as body language; gestures, sounds to the language andtone of voice, etc. This form of communication is the leasteffective one because the use of words constitute only 7%.To assume a presentation skill with verbal communication alonecan be a challenge in creating effective communication to theaudience. It is also a form of communication that reflects our innerself through the power of language. Effectual communication by meansof careful choice of words is capable of minimizing prejudice andbuilding job satisfaction and harmony at workplace. One may alsoargue that telephone conversation, or sending a quick email canbe an excellent time saver for it may be true only at timeswhen making simple questions or confirming certain facts. But,to fulfill our goals in most of the situations, verbalcommunications alone will not be effective. Besides, oralcommunication takes place instantly and quickly in anyorganization in situations when employer and employee, serviceproviders and customers communicate directly with each other.Also, verbal communication carries weight, as written messageis faithfully carried out, verbal interaction is seriouslyconsidered, ‘a promise made is promise kept’. Oralcommunication can be supplemented and complemented by non-verbal communication like body language and tone of voice.

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2.2. Written communication

According to the source, ‘Are they really ready to work?’ ”Eighty –one percent of employers surveyed by ‘The ConferenceBoard’ in 2006 rated high school graduates as deficient inwritten communication skills.” Written communication isanother powerful communication. An adage goes, ‘Pen is mightierthat sword.’ Written communication plays a significant role inour day to day life and in business activities. Although, it isgenerally related to writing letters, memos, diary, casualnotes written on greeting cards etc., recently due to thedevelopment of advanced technology, it has been extended towriting faxes, emails and web page, etc. Studies reveal thataverage person spends 9% of his time on writing incommunication. In business world, information is received fromvarious places. Managers have to read email, memos, letters,reports, faxes and also prepare such documents when necessary.In writing, sustaining the interest of readers is veryimportant if not readers may not be motivated to read.

In tourism industry, tourism professionals have to produceclear, detailed texts related to the aspects of tourism inrange of forms: emails, letters, leaflets, brochures reports,faxes, minutes, agenda, notices, job descriptions, policies andprocedures, references, appraisals, disciplinary actions, etcusing appropriate register in English. In order to communicatesuccessfully through writing, the writer needs to be able to

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proofread effectively his correspondence. Also, when checkingthe content, clarity, and conciseness of a document, the writershould make sure of his proper use of grammar and punctuations.

According to the preferred methods of business communication,2007; communication made through emails is 65%, face-to-facemeeting 31%, paper memo 3%, and voice mail 1%. For a successfuland effective business correspondence, writers should considerthe seven elements which can be remembered easily as 7c’s.Those are as follows: clear, correct, concise, complete,courteous, compelling and conversational.

Business correspondence will be clear to understand if it iswith simple words, simple sentences, appropriatecapitalization, and a suitable format. It also should be freefrom grammatical and spelling errors and the ideas should beexpressed concisely, politely and persuasively in aconversational form. And the content of the correspondenceshould be complete with necessary information to achieve thepurpose of the writer.

2.3 Non-verbal communication

Body language is mainly an important aspect of non- verbalcommunication. Body language implies our mannerisms anddemeanour. It expresses ideas in different ways like facialexpressions, gaze: looking at the other persons or away fromthem, paying attention or not. Gestures are deliberatemovements or signals made to convey something to anotherperson.

The diagram below shows the examples of body-language. includearm and hand movements while posture includes leaning forwardor backward: relaxed or stiff. Distance from other personwhether it is close or too far also come under body language.the following are the aspects of non- verbal communication.

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Diagram. 2

As the chart below illustrates, the communication process is 90%made up of non-verbal information. That is, language-specificwords account for only 10% of communication. The rest of thecommunication process is made up of tone and body language.According to Albert Mehrabian, non-verbal communication such asbody language and tone of voice can communicate moremessage than the spoken words effectively. He also exerts thatpeople rely more on non- verbal communication than verbalcommunication. It is said that a non –verbal communicationrepresents two- thirds of all communications. When compared tothe verbal messages non –verbal messages cannot be understooddirectly as it could be ambiguous. Sometimes, some signals ofanxiety and nervousness are similar to each other. Since it mayconfuse, we may react to the combination of both rather than one,(Hartley and Bruckman 2002). Also, conveying mixed messages canmake confusions, therefore, one has to make sure that his wordsand gestures, facial expressions, tone, etc, match with hismessage. For instance, when disciplining an employee, if theemployer smiles at him, it may mismatch his words with hisgestures, thus his message will be confusing and ineffective. Therefore, when one delivers a negative message, he should makehis words, facial expressions, and tone match with the message.Hence, developing an awareness of non-verbal behavior is very

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important to improve our ability in interacting with each other.However, for successful communication both an active listeningand a proper feedback are necessary. Following are the majorcomponents of body language we use for expressing our ideas;

2.3.1 Facial expressions and Eye contact: According tothe saying, ‘Face is the index of the mind.’ Face can reveal theemotional feelings of a person such as happiness, sadness,hatred, disgust anger, fear, etc, well. For example, a student’sconfused state of mind in a classroom can suggest that he needsfurther explanation while a smile or a nodding may suggest thatexplanation is not necessary. Eye contact is also very importantfor legal and business dealings, interview, presentation skills,and face- to -face conversations as it indicates the engagementor involvement with the speaker. It also helps regulatingconversational interactions, but it may vary depending on whatthe people are talking about what the personal relation isbetween them. Whereas a lack of eye contact can imply detachment,nervousness or that the person is hiding something important.For example, if a person shuts his eyes and when he opens themperiodically, he stares off in a direction away from thelistener. Such a person is perceived as incompetent by thosewith whom he consults. To cope this problem is one canconsciously look into the listener’s eyes and then move to theother persons, and the other technique is to create an imaginaryletter ‘T’ i.e a line across the eye brows and the verticalline on the centre of the nose and focus your eyes on that line.

2.3.2 Personal space and distance: For effective communicationwith people of a different culture or people of their own culture,they should be aware of space around them. According to theaccepted space to meet with the norm of communication process, thepublic space between the diplomats or VIP’s and reporters at apress conference or in a lecture room between a professor andstudents should be 12 to 25 feet distance. The social space among

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business dealers ranges from 4 to 12 feet. Among family members,friends, relatives the personal space between people ranges from 2to 4 feet. However, intimate space ranging from one foot ismaintained among family members and friends as relationship mayinvolve closer in touching, whispering and embracing.

The accepted boundaries that we consider as ours depends onvarious factors such as culture, personality, age, sex, status,and dominance (Hargie et al, 2004). Basically women tend to havecloser distance than men especially with other women. Similarlythe extroverts prefer to have closer distance than introverts andso are the very young and the old.

2.3.3 Cultural influence on space: distance varies according toculture. For example, North American and North European culturesallow a larger interpersonal distance than people of southernEurope, Latin America and the Middle East do (Hargie et al, 2004).In America when two people converse impersonally at a distance ofabout four feet, if one moves closer, the other will go away. In awaiting room, strangers will keep apart, but friends will sittogether, and members of family may actually touch one another.

2.3.4. The unique personal attributes of thecommunicator: These are personality traits that includeappearance, educational background and the physiological conditionof a communicator at the time of communicating. People tend tointeract with someone who is neat, clean and educated, especiallyin professional settings. Besides, a calm person is able toreceive the intended message better than someone who is agitatedor angry. Thus, personal appearance also plays a significantdegree of contribution in determining the effectiveness of themessage we convey and receive, interpreted and understood.According to research, ‘the more attractively the person presentsthemselves, the more advantages they will have in most aspects oftheir life’ (Wilson & Nias, 1999). “A number of factors caninfluence how attractive a person well groomed and generally ‘in

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good shape’.” (Adler and Elmhurst, 1999) is often impressed bythose around him. In the mean time, we should also know that someaspects of physical appearance cannot be changed easily. In somework places for health and social care professions the staffs wearuniform while some do not. Hamilton & Parker exerts dressing inneutral colors, simply, conservatively, and as expensively as canbe afforded; while also paying heed to those who are successfulwithin organization.

2.3.5. Voice; Albert Mehrabian’s work on verbal and non-verbal communication in the 1960’s and early 1970’s is consideredto be the valid model today. According to his study non - verbalcommunication like tone of voice and body language convey moremessage than words that are spoken. Tone means the way speak, itcould be fast or slow, gentle or aggressive or with pauses.

Tone of voice constitutes 35 – 40 per cent of the message wesend. Tone means the sound level of our utterance, type of ouremotion and the emphasis we make on words we utter. The followingsentence in bold show the impact of tone of voice.

Paraverbal Messages

Paraverbal communication refers to the messages that we transmit through the tone, pitch, and pacing of our voices. It is how we say something, not what we say. Professor Mehrabian states that the paraverbal message accounts for approximately 38% of what is communicated to someone. A sentence can convey entirely different meanings depending on the emphasis on words and the tone of voice. For example, the statement, "I didn't say you were stupid" has six different meanings, depending on which word is emphasized.

Some points to remember about our paraverbal communication:

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When we are angry or excited, our speech tends to become more rapid and higher pitched.

When we are bored or feeling down, our speech tends to slow and take on a monotone quality.

When we are feeling defensive, our speech is often abrupt.

Paraverbal Messages:

1. Account for about 38% of what is perceived and understood by others.

2. Include the tone, pitch, and pacing of our voice

I. I didn’t say he borrowed my book. II. I didn’t say he borrowed my book. III. I didn’t say he borrowed my book.IV. I didn’t say he borrowed my book.

V. I didn’t say he borrowed my book.

VI. I didn’t say he borrowed my book.

VII. I didn’t say he borrowed my book.

In each of the above words in bold, we can observe how the meaningof sentences changes although the words are the same. For instance,the sentence I (one) shows that somebody else said that he borrowed mybook. In linguistic terms, speech rate, pitch, articulation,pauses, emphasis and volume and non-verbal vocalizations like‘ahhh’ or sighing, and a plenty of information can be conveyed bythese means.

Visual communication

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Visual communication is a very powerful and effective media ofcommunication that plays a vital role in the business world. Thisform involves mostly the visual display of information in whichmessage is understood or expressed by means of visual aids.Topography, photography, signs, symbols, maps, colors, posters,banners and designs are the examples of visual communication thathelp the viewers understand the message visually.

The media of visual communication is influenced by electronicmedium such as computers, video clips, mobile phones, etc., used totransfer information in the form of film and text. Icons and emoticonsare also the form of visual communication which is used in public placesto instruct the user about their meaning and usage. The major form ofvisual communication is World Wide Web used globally to communicateeffectively with masses in the form of text, design, links and colour.Advanced technology has made the world into a global villagefacilitating the exchange of thoughts quicker and helped decision-making to any problem instantly. Internet, Skype, video chats,social network, video conferencing play a significant role ineffective communication. As a result, the modern business in theworld highly depends on technology for communication.

2. Hospitality Management and Tourism Industry

Before looking into the importance of effective communicationskills of tourism practitioners, let us learn what hospitality andtourism industry is.

Hospitality is a major area of the tourism industry. It composesof tourism industry from the initial arrival of guests extendingthe service of transport arrangements, food & beverage service toaccommodation until the departure. The success of the hospitalitydepends on creating a good and lasting impression when the guestsdepart, if not all the good service done is ruined at this stage.It is worthy to quote here the saying of the late Prime

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Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru about hospitality of a guest,“welcome a tourist and send him back as a friend” (Vijaya Babu, K,and Chandra Kala. Kakatiya University Journal, 155)

Both hospitality and tourism industry play a complementary role inproviding services to guests. In both of these industries, a largenumber of professionals are employed in all levels from the lowestto highly specialized professionals engaged in day to dayoperations. Their management skills, strong commitment to customerservice, leadership qualities is vital in running this industryprofitable and efficient in order to fulfill the customersatisfaction, comforts and experience to the maximum.

Effective communication

Being able to effectively communicate with clients and colleagueswill make your work easier and more enjoyable. We all have peoplewith whom we have to work to get things done.  Our ability tocommunicate with clients, customers, subordinates, peers, andsuperiors can enhance our effectiveness or sabotage us.  Manytimes, our verbal skills make the difference.

What do you mean by effectiveness? The purpose ofcommunication is to attain a certain goal. A main criterion forcommunicative competence is effectiveness. Effectiveness is afunctional attribute which may relate to the ability to achieve orto infer a speaker’s meaning (e.g. that an utterance is meantironic) or to the achievement of the goal behind this intent.Ironic is meant as a critique or as a joke) Spitzberg and Capach(1989) point out “effectiveness derives from control and isdefined as successful goal achievement or task accomplishment.(p.7)

Effective communication is a two way communication; itinvolves active listening; it reflects the accountability ofspeaker and listener; it utilizes feedback; it is free of stress;it is clear. Being able to effectively communicate with clients

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and colleagues will make your work easier and more enjoyableTourists are the individuals who expect something different fromtheir monotonous way of life at home; hence, it is theresponsibility of the industry to offer a type of communicationthat would fulfill their expectations. Although leisure touristswould not expect formalities, tourists in general expect a kind ofstrong communication at all levels by means of verbal, non-verbaland written grammatically sound in a relaxed and right manner. Itis believed widely that “power of communication that facilitatesunderstanding increases in direct proportion to the degree of liveinteraction in communication”

Tourism has different stages of which each is to be fulfilled. Apotential tourist seeking information expects a soundcommunication to fulfill his expectations on the followingaspects; tourist attractions, destinations and product andservices. Hence, it is the responsibility of the hosts to provideall the necessary information related to customer satisfaction.

3. Skills required by the industry

In a simple term skill can be defined as the ability to dosomething well. According to Brian Spitzberg (2003:95) skills aregenerally thought to be manifestation of some underlying abilitywhich is a capacity for action. This capacity is typicallyconceptualized as a function of numerous motivations (e.g.confidence, goals, reinforcement potential, components, etc.)Unlike other social behaviour, communication skills are notindependent of functional and situational influences. It oftenoccurs that people manifest very different skill qualities indifferent situations, be it self –presentation, empathy orconflict management.

There are different kinds of skills we gain in our lives fromvarious places and experiences such as school, work place,hobbies, sports, social work, etc. We must be aware that to do anytype of job well, we need two important skills such as ‘softskills’ and ‘hard skills’. Soft skills are primarily required for

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any job; conversely hard skills are essential only for specifictype of jobs. However, tourism industry considers the both skillsessential.

5.1 Soft skills

Soft skills are divided into two main parts. Those are ‘socialskills’ and ‘organizational skills.’ Social skills in other wordare known as communication skills inclusive of speaking, writingand body language and also team work skills. These skills areessential in our day to day life and work places, too. Forinstance, when we interact with others, we use the channels offace-to face or online, telephone, emails, fax, etc. In tourismindustry, social skills are very essential in all jobs. Goodcommunication skills are needed in order to communicateeffectively with different kinds of people, especially withguests, clients and professionals in all levels. In addition,team work skills are also very important to run smoothly a hotelwith many different departments and different categories ofemployees in order to provide a quality service to hotel guestsunless they have a spirit of team work.AL SKILLS

5.2 Organizational skills

Organizational skills are essential as people in team orindividually help each other for better performance. In order toachieve one’s goal in their personal and career prospects,organizational skills are very essential. Following are theorganizational skills with some examples of when and by whom theycan be used:

o Planning and coordination skills: An event Coordinator incharge of organizing a wedding reception.

o Prioritizing: A Housekeeper preparing the schedule of therooms to be cleaned by the Room Attendants.

o Multi-tasking skills: A Food & Beverage Attendant in a busyrestaurant in charge of welcoming clients, taking orders,serving food and drinks, clearing tables and taking payments.

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o Problem solving: A Guest Relations Executive dealing with acomplaint .from a hotel guest

o Decision making: A Cabin Crew deciding what to do during aflight when a passenger is feeling ill.

o Time-management skills: A Tourist Guide visiting a museumwith a large group of people within two hours.

Under hard skills come Technical skills and Artistic & Creativeskills dealing closely with tourism industry. These skillsbasically refer to the knowledge and abilities necessary to carryout a specific job. Technical skills are related to handlingparticular equipment. For instance, tourism practitioners requiredifferent technical skills as given below:

Chef needs to have culinary technical skills, such as foodpreparation, knowledge of health, safety and sanitation, andthe use of kitchen equipment.

Sommelier: wine skills and tasting, related to knowledge ofwines, wine service and wine & food matching.

Airline Pilot: aviation skills such as monitoring the flightinstruments during the flight.

Beauty Therapist: performing different types of treatmentssuch as facials, body treatments, manicures and pedicures.

However the above professionals dealing with technical skills andartistic & creative skills too require effective communicativeskills to perform their tasks efficiently.

4. Developing the soft skills

To make the soft skills more effective, tourism professionals arerequired to develop the following elements such as listeningskill, empathy, encouragement and cultural awareness.

6.1 Listening skill

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As psychiatrist Franklin Ernst, Jr. writes in his book, Who's Listening?".

"To listen is to move. To listen is to be moved by the talker - physically and psychologically . . . Thenon-moving, unblinking person can reliably be estimated to be a non-listener . . . When other visiblemoving has ceased and the eyeblink rate has fallen to less than once in six seconds, listening, forpractical purposes, has stopped."

Every good conversation starts with good listening. According to asurvey an average person spends 45 percent of his time onlistening. A study reveals that we hear only one quarter of whatis being said, and the rest of the time is spent day dreaming orjust turned out completely. A service oriented business liketourism, it is very essential to listen to the customers forvariety of reasons. The primary reason is to ensure that theintended message is correctly received by the guest. Also, hostsmay receive complaints and compliments from guests. The reasonsof the kind may help take decisions in managerial level. (George,Babu.3).

Listening

Listening

The key to receiving messages effectively is listening. Listening is a combination of hearing what another person says and psychological involvement with the person who is talking. Listening requires more than hearing words. It requires a desire to understand another human being, an attitude of respect and acceptance, and a willingness to open one's mind to try and see things from another's point of view.

Listening requires a high level of concentration and energy. It demands that weset aside our own thoughts and agendas, put ourselves in another's shoes and try to see the world through that person's eyes. True listening requires that we suspend judgment, evaluation, and approval in an attempt to understand another is frame of reference, emotions, and attitudes. Listening to understandis, indeed, a difficult task!

Often, people worry that if they listen attentively and patiently to a person who is saying something they disagree with, they are inadvertently sending a message of agreement.

When we listen effectively we gain information that is valuable to understanding the problem as the other person sees it. We gain a greater

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understanding of the other person's perception. After all, the truth is subjective and a matter of perception. When we have a deeper understanding of another's perception, whether we agree with it or not, we hold the key to understanding that person's motivation, attitude, and behavior. We have a deeper understanding of the problem and the potential paths for reaching agreement.

1. Requires concentration and energy

2. Involves a psychological connection with the speaker

3. Includes a desire and willingness to try and see things from another's perspective

4. Requires that we suspend judgment and evaluation

"Listening in dialogue is listening more to meaning than to words . . .In true listening, we reach behind the words, see through them, to find the person who is being revealed. Listening is a search to find the treasure of the true person as revealed verbally and nonverbally. There is the semantic problem, of course. The words bear a different connotation for you than they do for me. Consequently, I can never tell you what you said, but only what I heard. I will have to rephrase what you have said, and check it out with you to make sure that what left your mind and heart arrived in my mind and heart intact and without distortion."

- John Powell, theologian

The concept of the ‘Active Listener’ (Anderson & Lynch 1988) has gainedcurrency.Successful listening (as opposed to the more passive hearing) is to dowith activelyprocessing the incoming information and doing some work-hence theterm active. The authors define this as: The active listener is one who weighs upincoming information to ensure that it is coherent with information that is alreadyavailable, whether that established informationis derived from general background knowledge or specific visual data or from what hasbeen previously been said.

Then they suggest that:

When incoming information is not consistent with already established information, thelistener has to do some extra work. First he/she must recognise that the informationisinadequate or inconsistent, and secondly, he/she must identify where the

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inadequacy/inconsistency lies, and thirdly, do something about it-such as checking,asking questions etc.Notice the three distinct stages: recognition that there is a gap,identification of where there is a gap and moving to repair that gap. We musttherefore as active listeners be prepared to ask ourselves questions such as:‘Why am I listening to this?’ ‘What would I like to gain from this?’ ‘How doeswhat I’m listening to equate with what I’ve just been given?’ etc. Posingquestions such as these helps to ensure that we remain active and do not slumpinto being passive. Trying to follow these three stages explains why activelistening is such hard work and why to do it well makes us feel quite drainedat the end. Being an active listener is crucial when it comes to conducinginterviews, aswe shall see later.There are three aspects of listening we should be aware of:

1. We should aim to take in information and try to postpone our judgement of what isbeing said until we have listened to what the person is saying-right to the end of theutterance.It is very easy to be unduly influenced by surface features – accent,appearance,manner etc.-and not really listen to what is being said.It is so easy to estimate, before our speaker has finished, what he/she issaying; tocut across the line of communication with the thought: ‘I know all about this’.We often anticipate what we think the other person is going to say; this can bedangerous! We have to move from listening and then immediately evaluating tolistening, trying to interpret and then evaluation.Listening and interviewing232. We should aim to acknowledge speakers in a way that invites the communication tocontinue and develop.This acknowledgement can take several forms:• Non-verbal communication; maintaining eye contact, but not staring at thespeaker.• Adopting a comfortable position of not ‘over-crowding the listener.• Adjusting one’s position to encourage more confidence and a feeling of beingsafe.There is a technique which is called reflective listening where we try to reflect backtothe speaker what he or she is saying, not in a parrot fashion but reflectingthe ideasand especially the mood/emotions of the utterance. This technique is used insocialwork and counselling. It is a very specialised form of listening and we referyou totexts which will provide you with more information. However, here is an exampleof

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the technique being used. An elderly resident is talking to a social workerabout howshe’s had to get used to living as a resident in a nursing home after manyyears withher family:So what with all the fuss and commotion I found it difficult. It was all so differentreally,not knowing many people, I mean moving there as a stranger so to speak. It wasdifficult,not easy at first.....missing so much, the family and friends nearby.It wasn’t easy then at the beginning?No it wasn’t but things improved, got better, made some friends, like Jane in the nextroom, you know she and I used to know each other way back, funny to meet up again...and after a month or so began to settle a bit more. I suppose you’ve got to allow thatperiod of time when you first move in, being a newcomer so to speak.You feel more settled then?Yes, though I must say I did miss my old neighbours. Missed them a great deal. Stillyou’ve got to face change; there’s no point sitting and being depressed.Got to make the best of it.Yes, couldn’t stay. Just too much for them, all that work.The risk in using this technique is that it will appear condescending andvaguelypatronising to the listener; it can also lead the speaker to agree with you;the reflectivequestion must truly reflect the speaker’s feelings and not be part of thelistener’sagenda. Had the listener said:Got to make the best of it. The home’s better for you isn’t it ?Communication Skills for the Professional24Here we see how the agenda has been shifted, we are on the listener’s groundandaway from that of the speaker. She may well think that but she hasn’t said it.We mustat all times when using this technique take great care not to put words intothespeaker’s mouths. The skill then of reflection is using it prompt the speakerto continueby tuning into his or her emotions and feelings. Reflective listening is a veryusefultechnique, it is one that most of us have used at one time or another and itcan be ofgreat assistance in helping the communication by building a rapport.3.We should provide limited but encouraging input to the speaker’s response which helpsto carry his/her and our ideas forward.Care is needed here. It is all too easy to send wrong signals: ‘Uh ......... Uh ........’mayappear to us to be exactly that right kind of limited and encouraging input butto our

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speakers it may seem as though we want them to get on with it and come to thepoint(‘Oh, do get on with it’).Our use of questions-those which follow up on a point made by the speaker-canobviously signal to him or her that we are actually keeping up with theinformation. Itis a good idea to check occasionally to see whether our listening is keeping upwith theflow of incoming information.Can I just check with you that...?Before you go on could I...?We have to be careful that although we want to turn the interview into aconversationwe don’t want to keep interrupting the candidate’s flow with all thesequestions.We can be helped by asking someone to observe during an interview so that wecanget some kind of feedback on our performance as listeners.If our listening improves then it is just possible that others will make moreof aneffort to listen to us!References

6.2 How to develop the listening skill

By practicing the following ways one can develop his listeningskill for effective communication.

Focus on the words of the speaker without anticipating whatthe speaker may try to say.

Do not jump to conclusion.

Always pay attention to facial expressions of the speaker asthe expressions can provide further insight into thespeaker’s mental condition and his intent message.

Be aware of the speaker’s culture, as some cultures avoid eyecontact during communication.

Be knowledgeable about the others’ cultural differences thatcan help you interpret the message correctly.

6.3 Empathy

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Digram 4

Empathy is another important aspect of effective communicationskills. Empathy means trying to see things from the others’point- of- view. In other words, you being open to the others’ideas and sensitive to their values and feelings. In order tomake one’s communication more effective one has to practicethe following:

Be open to the others’ ideas and sensitive to theirvalues and feelings.

Be aware of the fact that each individual has a uniqueview that we must value.

Try not to judge ourselves or form an opinion or biasedby pre-conceived ideas or beliefs and come to a judgmentwithout listening to the other person’s point of view,because he or she may have reasons for their belief,norms or knowledge.

Honor and entertain the others’ views, thus you can bemore democratic and it will in return bring appreciationfor your judgment.

Keep in mind that there are some subjects which might betoo emotionally stressful for others to discuss.

6.4 Encouragement

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Diagram. 5

Hosts’ main objective is to attract tourists.

Practice always a positive attitude even when you arestressful, tired or having a bad day, because customersare not only paying for your service but also for yoursmile.

Offering service with kind words and pleasantenvironment may encourage the guests to visitrepeatedly.

Offering a clear, useful and important communicationneeded by customers is an important aspect.

6.5. Essentials of cross cultural communication in tourism

Cultural awareness is another important aspect of tourismcommunication since the tourists of diverse cultural backgroundvisit their destinations. More than the guests, the hosts arerequired to be aware of cultural differences for a successfulinteraction. Before exploring cultural awareness, it isnecessary to know what culture is. According to Adler , cultureis formed from values, attitudes and behavior. Adler furtheradds that in a multi-cultural environment we tend to interactwith people based on values, attitudes and behavioral norms ofour own culture. In contrast, the opposite party naturallytends to react with their own values, attitudes and behavioralpattern of their own culture (Adler 19).

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6.5.1 Cultural awareness related to tourism

Tourists visit different countries for many reasons such aspleasure, entertainment, pilgrimage, education, business andbroaden their understanding of diverse cultures. They createmore opportunities themselves to experience and broaden theirunderstandings of diverse cultures by visiting sites and areasof archeological interests; historical buildings and monuments;places of historical significance; modern cultural, politicaland educational institutions; religious places and traditions;music; folklore; native life and customs.

Tourists while learning a lot through cultural diversity, inthe mean time, expect their host countries to understand andrespect their own culture as well. One should take extra carefor cultural taboos practised in some countries. For instance,in Arab countries, a male cannot shake hands with an orthodoxMuslim. In Japan, one should not point with his/herchopsticks. In Austria, Italy, Germany and Malaysia, one shouldnever chew gum in public. Hence, tourism professionals of hostcountries are expected to have a wider knowledge of culturaldifferences as cultural tours are one of the important types oftourism. For effective cross- cultural communication tourismpractitioners have to practice the ten strategies that thefollowing diagram illustrates.

Diagram. 5

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Conclusion

To sum up, the students and the teachers dealing with thetourism related business should be aware of the importance ofeffective communication skills as required by the industry.They have to make conscious effort to prepare themselves tomeet the challenges in their real life situations by developingthe appropriate strategies, methods and skills. Moreover, theacademics engaged in tourism discipline should prepare studentsto equip themselves with necessary skills and gear their coursematerials so as to meet the requirements of the industry.

References

Rosenbaum, Tony. Effective Communication Skills: for Highway and Public worksOfficials. Cornell Local Roads Program. 2005. Www.clrp.cornell.edu>.

Madurai Kamaraj University. Business Communication: BBA(Retail) II Year Paper II: Vikash Publishing House, 2007.Print.

Dixon, Tara, and Martin, O’Hara. Communication Skills: Making Practice– Based Learning Work. University of Ulster.www.practicebasedlearning.org

Brown, Gillian, and Yule, George. Spoken and Written Language:Teaching of Spoken Language. London: Cambridge UP, 2004. Print.

Mackall, Joe. Career Skills library: Communication Skills.Career Skills Library. 3rd ed. Newyork: Ferguson, 2009.

Advanced Communication Skills: MTD Training 2010 MTD Training &Ventus Pub. APS, eBooks at BookBoon.com

Ainsworth, Charles. [Chuck]. Effective Communication Skills forToday’s Managers: Life Lessons. Ezine Articles RSSP. 30 Apr. 2009. Web.

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George, Babu. Communication Skills for Success: Tourism Industry SpecificGuidelines. Web. 1 May 2012. www.usm.edu>.

www.anglohigher.com/magazine/detail/97/38# 1XZZ 2 Q 3 fDdPPM.PDF

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes

Vijaya Babu. K, and Chandra Kala. “Indian Travel Tradition andCustomer Relations Management in Tourism Industry.” KakatiyaJournal of Historical Studies 5.1 (2010): 155. Print.

Htt://www.brainquote.com/quotes

info@trainedfortourism.org.mt