Tourist Guiding and Interpretation

The knowledge which the students of Tourist Guiding Program have acquired on the archaeology and art history of Anatolia through the formal education process focuses basically Classical Antiquity including Hellenistic and Roman period, Eastern Roman Empire widely known as the Byzantine Empire, and Turkish and Islamic Art which centers on Anatolian Seljuks, Principalities and the Ottoman Empire. Apart from this wide range of topics, the students also learn the prehistory of Anatolia stretching from the Paleolithic period to the Middle Bronze Age, and Iron Age states after the Late Bronze Age (the collapse of the Hittite Empire) at the lesson given under different names such as ‘Prehistory of Anatolia’, ‘Anatolian Archaeology’, and ‘Anatolian Civilizations’ depending on the duration and the curriculum of the program. Besides, it is aimed with the lesson of Vocational English to give the students the knowledge that they will need in their business life and the vocabulary they will use at the tours. Lack of any books for tour guiding through readings provided strong initial prodding to prepare this book. This book was prepared to live up to such expectation by combining the professional knowledge with the language knowledge.

The focus of this article is on how identity on a local level is expressed through cultural heritage interpretation and negotiated in an environment of globalization, but also multiculturalism and promotion of locality, like the European Union (EU). Interpretation is public communication of perceptions and values attached to heritage, and a main component of cultural tourism. Tourist guides in Greece, where guiding is strictly regulated, have been confronted with the EU on several occasions. Through the examination of this conflict, issues such as rights of interpretation, the projected image and identity of place and people, otherness and identity realization, the role of education and especially archaeology in governing, as perceived by the Greek tourist guides, are examined and analysed in the contexts of audience, state and the EU.

In tourism studies globalization and localization are often conceived of as a binary opposition. The ethnography of an Indonesian group of tour guides presented here illustrates how the global and the local are intimately intertwined through what has been described as the process of “glocalization”. The guides studied are remarkable front-runners of glocalization. They fully participate in global popular culture and use new technologies in their private lives. While guiding, however, they skillfully represent the glocalized life around them as a distinctive “local”, adapted to the tastes of different groups of international tourists. It is concluded that tourism offers excellent opportunities to study glocalization, but that more grounded research is needed.

Traveller's wishes, needs and expectations keep changing constantly as destinations vie with each other to increase their share from the international tourism pie. Destinations need to offer qualified service and renew themselves continuously. In this context, tour guides as key representatives of destinations play a significant role on tourist satisfaction and re-visit intention. This research aims to ascertain the role played by tour guides on the satisfaction level of tourists participating in guided tours in Istanbul. Another aim of this research is to determine the impact level of tour guides on the possible re-visit intention of tourists to the same destination. Based on 530 completed surveys from international tourists, the findings revealed a significant relationship between tourist satisfaction , re-visiting intention and tour guiding service. Following the evaluation of the findings, recommendations were developed for the tourism industry.

In recent years, the importance of tourist guide’s interpretive role has increased and has begun to be included in foreign scientific studies. It is seen that tourist guides’ interpretive roles have gained importance in promoting local culture and cultural heritage. The main purpose of the study is to identify how historical, mythological, ecological belief and cultural images with high artistic value depicted in mosaic panels in Zeugma Mosaic Museum can be interpreted in an entertaining and accurate way after going through tourist guides’ information strainer with literature review, visual elements and participating tourist guides’ suggestions. Providing information about the artifacts in the museum necessitates knowing and interpreting many disciplines, in particular art history and archeology. Therefore, in addition to historical, mythological, geographical and socio-cultural subjects, tourist guides need to be knowledgeable on many different subjects like presentation techniques, diction, animation ability, group psychology and visitor profile and they also need to apply these. On the other hand, since the study is a new subject, it is expected to contribute to the literature on tourist guiding and the promotion of Zeugma museum.

Taking into account changing demand, the author of the article starts with classifying types of guiding services and makes reference to specialist literature related to conventional guiding (part 1), and then proceeds to describe a few novel methods of providing such services in urban areas. Options on offer in various European cities are used as examples of mixed types of guiding services: “driving guide”, “guide and shopping adviser” and “guide-lecturer”. In each case the description includes guide’s duties and requirements which must be met by those providing such services. The author also points to the possible use of each type in options on offer for specific groups of travellers. The third part contains a detailed description of the guide’s role in dramatized tours, and his or her possible contribution to “questing”, an increasingly popular form of tours taken by visitors on their own.

The role of anthropology as an academic discipline that seeds tourism imaginaries across the globe is more extensive than generally acknowledged. In this article, I draw on ethnographic and archival research in Indonesia and Tanzania to examine critically the recycling of long-refuted
ethnological ideas and scientific ideologies in contemporary tourism interpretation. A fine-grained analysis of local tour guide narratives and practices in two popular destinations, Yogyakarta and Arusha, illustrates empirically how outdated scholarly models, including anthropological ones, are strategically used to represent and reproduce places and peoples as authentically different and relatively static, seemingly untouched by extra-local influences.

En los estudios sobre el turismo, globalización y localización se conciben a menudo en oposición binaria. En este trabajo se muestra una etnografía de un grupo indonesio de guías de turismo para ilustrar cómo lo global y lo local están íntimamente entrelazados a través de lo que se ha descrito como el proceso de "glocalización". Los guías estudiados son buena muestra de ese fenómeno de glocalización. Participan plenamente de una cultura popular global y en sus vidas privadas hacen uso de las nuevas tecnologías. Por contra, en su trabajo representan con maestría la vida “glocalizada” que les rodea como distintivamente "local", adaptada a los gustos de los diferentes grupos de turistas. Se concluye pues que el turismo ofrece excelentes oportunidades para estudiar el fenómeno de la glocalización, aunque aún es necesaria una mayor cantidad de investigación empírica.

Yakıcı güneşin altında aylarca, yıllarca toprağı karış karış araştırmak, bulunan her bir parçayı bir yapboz gibi birleştirip bu topraklar üzerinden insanlığın geçmişini, kendimizi anlamaya çalışmak çok büyük ekip çalışması, emek ve sabır istiyor. Fakat siz turist rehberlerinin, çalışmalarımızı sizinle birlikte buraları görmeye gelen insanlara doğru aktarma gayretlerini gördükçe, çekilen tüm sıkıntılara değdiğini anlıyorum." Prof. Dr. Klaus Schmidt Eski Göbeklitepe Kazı ve Araştırma Başkanı

A multi-task profession requiring multi-faceted responsibilities in a multi-component job setting, tourist guiding comprises complicated and multivariate roles composed of different kinds of unrelated roles and sub-roles, where above all, the establishment of strong face-to-face relations with guests necessitate the regulation, management and adjustment of emotions in a service intensive business environment that is in ongoing expansion and competition, all contributing to emotional burden of tourist guides. If the actually felt emotions by the employees are not incompatible with the emotions that are displayed, various negative results ensue. The purpose of this study is to examine the use of emotional labor and outcomes of emotional labor here being job satisfaction and burnout, using a quantitative method, in the context of the tour guiding industry in Turkey followed by recommendations for practice. Öz: Sürekli değişen bir iş ortamında icra edilen ve farklı sorumluluk alanlarını kapsayan çok değişkenli bir meslek olarak turist rehberliği, birbiriyle ilişkisiz ya da değişik alt rollerden oluşan çok yönlü bir meslektir. Giderek büyüyen ve rekabetin de hızla arttığı hizmet yoğun bir iş ortamında güçlü yüz yüze ilişkilerin kurulması gerekliliği, aynı zamanda duyguların düzenlenmesi, yönetimi ve ayarlanmasını da gerekli kılar. Bu durum turist rehberinin duygusal yükünü de arttırır. Çalışanlar tarafından fiilen hissedilen duyguların, sergilenen davranışlarla örtüşmemesi çeşitli olumsuz sonuçlar doğurabilmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı Türkiye'deki turist rehberlerinin duygusal emek kullanımı ile iş doyumu ve mesleki tükenmişliklikleri arasındaki ilişkinin incelenmesi ve uygulamada öneriler sunulmasını kapsamaktadır.

The concept of sustainability has become one of the most popular topics of tourism studies. Sustainable tourism emerged as a strong stream of tourism research based on the stance that tourism industry has responsibility for degradation of natural and cultural environments. Additionally, tourism industry consumes local resources and has to pay its attention on conservation issues. Tour guides are part of tourist experience in destinations and they have a strong influence on tourist behavior. In this study, the potential support of tour guides conducting excursions to Ephesus Ancient City located at Western Anatolia nearby Izmir metropolitan city is questioned for sustainable heritage valorization process. Ephesus is regarded as one of the great outdoor museums of Turkey, once the trade center of the ancient world, a religious center of the early Christianity and today an important tourism center deserves to be questioned through cultural heritage valorization concept. Role of tour guides in minimizing negative impacts of tourist traffic is rarely perceived and applied as a support to heritage site managers. This research seeks to reflect primary data obtained through qualitative data collection techniques (semi-structured interview) from Turkish tour guides surveyed at Ephesus Ancient City. Following the evaluation of findings, recommendations will be developed for tourism industry and cultural heritage site managers. Valorización sostenible del patrimonio cultural via tour guías: caso turco de efeso ciudad antigua Resumen: El concepto de sostenibilidad se ha convertido en uno de los temas más populares entre los estu-dios de turismo. El turismo sostenible surgió como una fuerte corriente de investigación basada en la postura de la industria del turismo en relación a su responsabilidad en la degradación de los ambientes naturales y culturales. Además, la industria del turismo consume recursos locales y tiene que prestar atenciónal tema de la conservación. Los guías turísticos hacen parte de la experiencia turística en los destinos y tienen una fuerte influencia en el comportamiento de los turistas. En este estudio es cuestionado el potencial apoyo de los guías turísticos que realizan excursiones a Éfeso, antigua ciudad ubicada en Anatolia occidental cerca de la ciudad metropolitana de Esmirna, en el proceso de valorización del patrimonio sostenible. Éfeso es considerado como uno de los grandes museos al aire libre de Turquía, uno de los centros de comercio del mundo antiguo, un centro religioso del cristianismo primitivo, y en la actualidad, un centro turístico importante que merece ser estudiado a través del concepto de valorización del patrimonio cultural. El papel de los guías turísticos en la minimización de los impactos negativos del tráfico de turistas rara vez es percibido y aplicado como un apoyo para los gestores de lugares con patrimonio. Esta investigación procura reflejar datos primarios obtenidos a través de técnicas de recolección de datos cualitativos (entrevista semiestructurada) de guías turísticos turcos encuestados en la Ciudad Antigua de Éfeso. Tras la evaluación de los resultados, se elaborarán recomendaciones para la indu-stria del turismo y para los gestores de lugares con patrimonio cultural.

The main goal of this article is to conceptually discuss how important guiding and environmental interpretation is for enhancing the visitorsèxperiences and for conservation in national parks. Tour guides and Park rangers have played a bridging role for connecting visitors to nature; they have an important mediation role in wildlife and nature encounters. Desktop research for this study includes literature review, technical visits to parks, and interviews with key informants. This article is predominantly qualitative. It contributes to the literature at identifying the main aspects, natural and educational resources, and attractions of the Parks in Queensland, with an emphasis on the Springbrook National Park. The major educational programs in the Gold Coast region and the tools used for environmental interpretation, including the role of guides and rangers, are comprehensively discussed. The outcomes show that the Parks have served to these educational means, but environmental interpretation and education should be expanded to accommodate in large numbers the general visitors – others than the school visitors. Other major challenges are related to lack of proper fund allocations for environmental education programmes and to the workloads of rangers.

In this essay, from a position as participant or participant observer, I describe the emergence and development of an engagement with heritage narratives and spaces from within the site-based artists collective Wrights & Sites (Exeter, UK), influenced by the ‘mainstream’ guided tour and by the ‘dark tourism’ (abject, terrorising and apocalyptic) content of many of such tours, and informed by psychogeographical and mythogeographical walking arts (Smith, Mythogeography, On Walking) and by site-specific theatre (Pearson & Shanks, Pearson). I pursue these developments until a single performance – Water Walk – draws together different strands of this development in a manner which suggests a new kind of relationship between performer/guide and tourist/audience.

Since the Revolution of the 25 th of January 2011, Tourism in Egypt has been facing major problems. Among these is the large number of unemployed tour guides due to trip cancellations. An increasing need emerged to develop strategies in order to improve the current situation of tour guides. The main objectives of this research are to implement entrepreneurial approaches in the field of tourist-guiding. The study deals with starting a personal business as a tour-guide, through promoting tours and all related services. Such an enterprise has the advantage of being managed from home through the internet, using online applications and social media websites, not to mention the possibility to produce a large income. The research will conduct a qualitative approach by interviewing a number of Egyptian tour-guides. One of the main conclusions of the study is that Entrepreneurship would help tour-guides know how to market the services of their business. This requires building contacts with companies and individuals on all levels. The success of the business is accomplished by providing clients with the best offers they can get and to possess the know-how of promoting the required services. Recommendations of the study include that tour-guide should look for entrepreneurial ideas doing all the effort needed to make their business succeed. It is also highly recommended to create coordination with tourism suppliers and to build alliances with all relevant tourism promoters.

This paper describe a transition from specialised performance interventions – for example, GeoQuest and A Tour of Sardine Street (both 2010) – in heritage sites to a handing over of the tactics of those performances to general tourists and visitors for the making of their own performance-like counter-touristic visits. This change is based on a re-valuing; moving away from assumptions that tourists are essentially passive in making their visits and that the sites of those visits are neutral spaces to a valorisation of tourist visits as constructive and agentive and of the sites as places of ‘chorastic’ potential. 

The paper describes the use of a multi-modal research methodology; predominantly mixing participant observation and practice-as-research. It narrates the key moments of transition in the research: a double movement of exorcism and spectral return on a ‘mis-guided tour’ (Water Walk, 2010), the discovery that volunteer panel members were not simply observing tours but beginning to re-perform them, the shift from a dispersal of specialised, technical knowledge to a more generally accessible toolkit model exemplified by the publication of A Sardine Street Box of Tricks in 2011, and a series of experimental visits by the author (some accompanied by panel members) to heritage sites on which ‘tactics’ were both tested and new ones devised.

The paper sets the emergence of a performative counter-tourism strategy as a development of practices and ideas informed by or originating in site-specific performance, contemporary Performance Studies and Tourism Studies, walking arts (including disrupted versions of the standard guided tour), and mythogeography.

1. INTRODUCTION In recent years, the importance of tourist guide's interpretive role has increased and has begun to be included in foreign scientific studies. It is seen that tourist guides' interpretive roles have gained importance in promoting local culture and cultural heritage. The main purpose of the study is to identify how historical, mythological, ecological belief and cultural images with high artistic value depicted in mosaic panels in Zeugma Mosaic Museum can be interpreted in an entertaining and accurate way after going through tourist guides' information strainer with literature review, visual elements and participating tourist guides' suggestions. Providing information about the artifacts in the museum necessitates knowing and interpreting many disciplines, in particular art history and archeology. Therefore, in addition to historical, mythological, geographical and socio-cultural subjects, tourist guides need to be knowledgeable on many different subjects like presentation techniques, diction, animation ability, group psychology and visitor profile and they also need to apply these. On the other hand, since the study is a new subject, it is expected to contribute to the literature on tourist guiding and the promotion of Zeugma museum. Professional tourist guiding is a work area with rich human relations, high professional return and satisfaction. Tourists believe that successful guides have extensive knowledge on the visiting places and attraction elements (Yu, Weiler& Ham, 2001). Ap and Wong expressed that tourist guides have the ability to turn a museum visit into an unforgettable learning experience for the visitors (Ap & Wong, 2001). Tourist guides give confidence to the group with their interest and knowledge. The feeling of confidence raises the visitors' expectations of experiencing a new cultural experience without feeling the difficulties of being in a foreign country. From this aspect, tourist guides contribute to the preservation and promotion of the cultural and natural heritage of the countries where they work at. On the other hand, a guide's foreign language skills have important part in cultural mediation and knowing both languages provides the guide the opportunity to defend one culture to the other culture fairly (Yu et al., 2001: 79). Partaking in the application of package tours prepared by tour operators, tourist guides play important role to meet the aforementioned needs in the name of travel agency and tour operator. On the other hand, it is known that the roles of tourist guides in interpretation of destination culture and cultural mediation are gaining importance. Through the example of Zeugma Museum mosaics, the study evaluated how the interpretive roles of tourist guides were effective in passing complicated subjects. 2. Literature Tourist guides bear the responsibility to make written, visual and auditory, artistic and historical themes meaningful for the tourists with the education they have gotten and pass this information to them in an entertaining way. While fulfilling these responsibilities, they draw on their communication and interpretation abilities. Where there is intense competition in the tourism sector, countries develop different strategies to be the preferred destination and try to ensure customer loyalty by focusing on tourist satisfaction. It is seen that the countries that prioritize tourist satisfaction aim to raise service quality. It is known that tourist guides take a role in destination promotion, tourist satisfaction and raising destination loyalty. The changes in tourist expectations has widened tourism industry and brought multidimensionality. Tourist guides and their professional roles also got affected by the changes and their roles turned into much more diverse and comprehensive roles compared to their solely guiding roles during the beginning years of tourism. Interpretative Roles of Tourist Guides: While performing their professions, tourist guides have

Nowadays, local tour guides are key players in mediating tensions between concurrent processes of localization and globalization. Drawing on fieldwork in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, this paper explores how Javanese guides adapt their practices to better serve and please Asian clients. By way of an anthropological examination of Yogyakarta's tourism sector in general and the guiding scene in particular, the paper illustrates how the surge in tourists of Asian origin is redefining the roles commonly assigned to guides in the scientific literature. The empirical data illustrate that while the Javanese guides are fine-tuning their routines to accommodate what they perceive as Asian cultural sensibilities and interests, broader structural dynamics frame the encounter. This reaffirms that tourism of Asian origin is both shaped by and shaping the currently dominant models, discourses, and imaginaries of international tourism.

Many people view a guided group tour as an appealing experience, because it offers knowledge, fun and an opportunity for socializing. Informality of the setting makes it an efficient medium for conveying important messages to participants, not only to tourists but also to local people. The interpretive tour enables residents to get to know certain areas in their town better and become deeply interested in monuments of history with the help of an experienced and educated guide. Generally, it is important for any tourist destination, and especially for the development of cultural tourism: the residents' treatment of their own tradition and cultural heritage define to a great extent the tourists' perception of the site they visit as well as their behavior. This paper analyses one of Europe's first projects of cultural heritage mass interpretation in the for of guided tours, set up in Serbia in 1998. The sponsor of the free of charge, interpretive guided walks for the citizens of Belgrade is the city's central municipality "Stari Grad" (Old Town)

Almoez street (Shariʻa al-Muizz li-Deen Illah), the greatest concentration of medieval architectural treasures in the Islamic world.  At approximately one kilometer long, this beautiful street features all kinds of colorful shops selling  spices, old antiques, clothes and perfumes. Almoez street is the main historic road in Historic Cairo which is world heritage sites.
This visitors map ,that has just been published by Egypt Ministry of Antiquities, presents last updated features of the royal street at Islamic Cairo.

The present study investigates whether there is a relationship between emotional labor presentation styles and self-acceptance scores of tour guides. The research data were collected from 307 tour guides registered to 13 chambers of The Union of Tourist Guides using the questionnaire technique. The data were analysed with factor analysis and correlation analysis. According to the results of the analysis, tourist guides have two different emotional labor presentation styles, the first being deep acting and the second being surface acting, and their average self-acceptance score is approximately 38. Correlation analysis showed a significant relationship between emotional labor presentation styles and self-acceptance scores of tour guides.

TOUR GUIDES’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS PAMUKKALE DESTINATION TURKEY
The aim of this study is to inspect attitudes of tourist guides towards Pamukkale destination that has an important role in Turkish tourism. Survey method was used to collect data about the attitudes of tourist guides towards Pamukkale regarding their gender, age and income criteria. Data collected by questionnaire technique was analyzed by a statistical software called SPSS 13.0 (Statistical Program for Social Sciences), a widely used program in social sciences. When the attitudes of tourist guides towards Pamukkale destinations are questioned in terms of gender, age and income level significant differences are discovered.
Keywords: Tourist guide, destination, destination image, Pamukkale, Denizli
(TUR) REHBERLERİN PAMUKKALE DESTİNASYONUNA YÖNELİK ALGILAMALARI
Bu çalışmanın amacı; rehberlerin turizmde önemli bir yere sahip olan Pamukkale destinasyonuna yönelik tutumlarını incelemektir. Bu çalışmada, cinsiyet, yaş ve gelire göre rehberlerin Pamukkale’ye olan tutumlarını hakkında veri toplamak için anket tekniği kullanılmıştır. Anket yoluyla toplanan veriler, sosyal bilimler için geliştirilmiş olan SPSS 13.0 (Sosyal Bilimler İçin İstatistik Programı) adlı istatistik programı ile analiz edilmiştir. Rehberlerin tutumları cinsiyet, yaş ve gelir durumu açısından incelendiğinde oldukça önemli farklılıklar ortaya çıkmıştır.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Turist Rehberi, Destinasyon, Destinasyon İmajı, Pamukkale, Denizli

Public involvement in tourism industry is seldom criticized (Jeffries, 2001, 280). The crucial question which is discussed in economic literature regarding tourism market is not whether the intervention is necessary but what shape should it have. Tourism en block is promoted as a panacea for all problems, especially for unemployment issue Baum and Szivas 2009, 783-794). On the other hand very little is written in both academic and popular publications about efficiency of public spending and benefits from withdrawing public intervention. Most economists agree there are certain areas of tourism economy where public regulation is indispensable such as tourism information or marketing of tourism destinations (Jeffries 2001, 100-150). Licensing of tour guides belongs to areas which are relatively little researched and where proposed solutions are at least ambiguous (Ap and Wong 2001, 551-563).

Αρκεί να έχεις τα μάτια σου κλειστά, να μυρίσεις και να ακούσεις την Ανατολή στο σπίτι του πρώην κυβερνήτη της Αιγύπτου, Μωχάμετ Άλη, που βρίσκεται στην πόλη της Καβάλας.
Σκοπός της παρούσας μελέτης είναι ο σχεδιασμός μίας διαφοροποιημένης ξενάγησης σε άτομα με προβλήματα όρασης.

Traveller’s wishes, needs and expectations keep changing constantly as destinations vie with each other to increase their share from the international tourism pie. Destinations need to offer qualified service and renew themselves continuously. In this context, tour guides as key representatives of destinations play a significant role on tourist satisfaction and re-visit intention. This research aims to ascertain the role played by tour guides on the satisfaction level of tourists participating in guided tours in Istanbul. Another aim of this research is to determine the impact level of tour guides on the possible re-visit intention of tourists to the same destination. Based on 530 completed surveys from international tourists, the findings revealed a significant relationship between tourist satisfaction, re-visiting intention and tour guiding service. Following the evaluation of the findings, recommendations were developed for the tourism industry.

Tourist guides also benefit from historical books and mythological knowledge while they are transfering it to their travel group. In this way they enrich their expressions and rhetorical narration, it contributes to visualize how it looks before. With the effective interpretation of the reflections  between the past and present day, tourist guide help to intensify of the visitors interest  and awerness the cultural heritages importance.

The concept of sustainability has become one of the most popular topics of tourism studies. Sustainable tourism emerged as a strong stream of tourism research based on the stance that tourism industry has responsibility for degradation of natural and cultural environments. Additionally, tourism industry consumes local resources and has to pay its attention on conservation issues. Tour guides are part of tourist experience in destinations and they have a strong influence on tourist behavior. In this study, the potential support of tour guides conducting excursions to Ephesus Ancient City located at Western Anatolia nearby Izmir metropolitan city is questioned for sustainable heritage valorization process. Ephesus is regarded as one of the great outdoor museums of Turkey, once the trade center of the ancient world, a religious center of the early Christianity and today an important tourism center deserves to be questioned through cultural heritage valorization concept. Role of tour guides in minimizing negative impacts of tourist traffic is rarely perceived and applied as a support to heritage site managers. This research seeks to reflect primary data obtained through qualitative data collection techniques (semi-structured interview) from Turkish tour guides surveyed at Ephesus Ancient City. Following the evaluation of findings, recommendations will be developed for tourism industry and cultural heritage site managers.

The Annual Conference of  The Israeli Tourism Researchers Forum, organized by Ben Gurion University in the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel; February, 2-3, 2012.
Paper Presentation: Ron, A. and Gelbman, A. The Multi-narrative Approach in Tourist Guiding: The Case of Jerusalem. 

"Tourism spaces are often contested over various issues like identity, ideology, theology, culture, geopolitics, and hegemony. In such spaces one can find a multiplicity of narratives providing the visitor with historical facts, explanations and interpretations of the (in)visible realities; while visiting these spaces, the visitors can also experience their complexity. Jerusalem is one of the best known examples of contested tourism spaces. Although some come with a very well pre-defined and rigid opinion and viewpoint, many are confused and ignorant, and hope that the visit will somewhat clarify previous confusions, misconceptions and their lack of knowledge.
This phenomenon is also relevant to the conceptual debate on whether tourism has the potential to actively promote peace and understanding between people, or whether tourism is one of the outcomes of peace. Tour guides have been found to be not only pathfinders and sources of information, but also mediators and interpreters of messages and narratives. In this research, this particular role will be examined in the context of contributing to peace and understanding in contested areas.
The sources of information for tourists are many, some of the main ones being the tour guides' oral narratives, travel guides, site attributes (such as signage), and the relevant academic research literature. The narratives are often one-sided, highlighting a particular interpretation of the place; however, they can also be dual, or multi-narratives, highlighting more than one version at the same time.
This research deals with the presentation of contested issues in the tourist space of Jerusalem. The main research aim is to find out whether the use of the single or multi-narrative approach is practiced, and what the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches are, in relation to different circumstances. These presentations are examined in oral performances of tour guides, while the research methodology includes observation of guided tours, and personal interviews with tour guides. One can assume that tour guides who implement the multi-narrative approach will make a small but meaningful contribution to the issues of peace and understanding.
"