3. Protocol and Etiquette Knowledge for Travelers

“In Rome, we must do as Rome does”. This is an old English proverb telling the importance of etiquette in travel. The traditions about eating, drinking, dressing, introducing, using titles differ in different parties of the world. Even in close geographies peoples differ in protocol and etiquette. For example in Europe there are several differences between countries (Gandouin, 2001: 365-366).

Some basic etiquette rules travelers should know (Yıldız, 2004; de Rothschild, 1991: 345-346):

Travelers should respect other people during the travel, and think for the comfort of them

The person sitting next to you does not have to talk as long as you wish

When opening windows in a train or bus first ask the permission of the person nearby

During long travels when you eat something in your seat ask the person nearby if s/he would like to eat. If they reject do not insist.

Take care of your children during the travel, don’t let them bother people

Don’t forget to tip; many employees are dependent to tips as part of their income.

When you travel with a tour group, listen to the tourist guide during his explanations and be careful about timing, don’t make other wait for you.

You should give priority to elderly people, disabled and women (especially pregnant or with children)

During travel you may meet new people but no one has obligation to tell privacy to others.

While traveling with a cruise ship or passenger boat, captain’s invitation should be accepted unless very serious problems, while dining with captain, guests should wait the captain to leave the table.

Dress codes are important during travel. Attention should be paid to the local customs, values, traditions, in short cultural profile of the places visited.

In group; it is impolite to wear very different, to talk aloud, not complain all the time to others, don’t miss the vehicle frequently, don’t forget purse etc, don’t create hostility in the group,

A refined person is known by; his voice ton, speaking style, clothing, discrete attitudes, courtesy, self-control, respect to himself and others.

4. Protocol and Etiquette Knowledge for Travel Industry Employees

Protocol and etiquette rules are more important in service industries than other industries. But despite this reality some enterprises seem to ignore these rules. People who say that these rules are not necessarily needed are happy to be treated with them. Protocol and etiquette starts with a smile before all. The first five seconds have critical importance in service contacts, because clients get their first impressions at this phase and these impressions are long-lasting. For this reason uniforms worn by service employees reflect the image of the enterprise either positively or negatively (Mısırlı, 2006: 191). The ideal tourism employee should always keep positive attitude, get pleasure from serving to people. A good mix of technical and professional knowledge with social skills can increase job satisfaction. In tourism business, manners and behaviors of the personnel are as important as the function they realize (Turkish Ministry of Tourism, 1995: 56).

Inter-Employee relations

If employee works in an office he has to receive his colleagues after standing up and with a genuine enthusiasm. Space use is important. During a face to face conversation the distance with male should not exceed 40 cm, and with females the distance should be at least 60 cm. Closer distances mean personal private area and should not be violated. When a group of employees with different ranks walk together higher ranked ones are in front and mid of the group, but when two employees walk together ladies, seniors, and higher levels walk at the right side. If an employee receives a visitor in his office equal or higher to his rank, he should quit the armchair and sit in front of the desk with the visitor. During visits of higher ranks the subordinates should not receive other visitors, talk with phones or do other things.

During working period colleagues should pay attention to: correctly using titles of personnel in hierarchical order, being polite and helpful to female employees without discrimination, respect written and unwritten codes of the enterprise, carrying elegantly designed card visits of the enterprise, learning how to talk on telephone with colleagues and how to write them professionally, participating dinners given for the personnel, exchanging wish cards and other messages during important days of the calendar such as new year (De Janzé, 1997: 166-172)

Sometimes employees meet and work with international colleagues. During these international interpersonal contacts some preliminary talks are needed. If the unseen glass is not broken the communication becomes less fruitful. Topics to talk about may differ geographically or culturally. Some common topics are weather, comparing places and cities, sports of interest, travel and flights, tastes about food and beverage in different countries. Starting these conversations is an art and requires questions with answers other than yes/no (Dean, 2009: 101-109).

Employee-Guest relations

Proper communication is to be learned by travel industry employees like in other industries. Entertaining and interacting become critical in new business environments. Personal needs become more important in commercial contacts. Business socializing does not have to be very expensive, face-to-face meetings are always important and even during crisis times these should be continued maybe with a limited budget. Employees represent the manager, the owner and the firm in general so their attitudes and styles of communication have profound impacts on business performance. Words, actions, and appearance got more important in a changing business environment where professional communication scenes are becoming internationalized more than before (Klein, 2009).

Service personnel should take into consideration the following rules of etiquette (Öter, 2009: 32):

never using imperative speaking style while talking to the client

being careful about bothering the clients

not be reflecting personal and private problems of the employees to the clients

staying alert to the client needs, not ignoring them, not staying indifferent to their needs

creating eye contact with the client with a friendly smile

not touching with hands to the food, drink, or medicines served

not staring, gazing long time at clients, not talking with satire and other verbal harassment

A crucial topic for tourism personnel is handling complaints and dealing with very angry or frustrated clients. In these situations the following rules are recommended:

To cool down the service process carefully to gain time for solutions

Breathing deeply to get maximum amount of oxygen

Asking open ended questions to let them express their feelings freely (not yes/no questions)

Staying patient, silent but helpful and in action

Insisting is not advised against these types of clients

Collective intelligence is sought, not the solution of one side but a cooperative solution process is required

Approving clients during their speeches helps a lot to decrease the tension

Win/win method is to be implemented by the employee

In the most of services businesses, the employee - customer contact view draws a distinction between work done in the front office and work done in the back office. In the front office, the following three-way interaction among the primary elements of a work system can be seen:

Customer Technology

Employee

In the back office, a two-way interaction system works:

Technology Employee/Worker

From a work design standpoint, task uncertainty in the front office is greater than in the back office since in the former there is only one sentient component-the employee, while in the latter there are two-the worker and the customer. Such task uncertainty, in turn, suggests that skills required on the part of the worker are substantially different in high-and low-contact work and that it makes sense therefore to consider contact as a major contingency variable in the design of jobs (Chase and Tansik, 1983).

Good communication is the foundation of successful relationships, both personally and professionally. But we communicate with much more than words. In fact, research shows that the majority of our communication is nonverbal. Non-verbal communication, or body language, includes our facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, posture, and even the tone of our voice.

The ability to understand and use non-verbal communication is a powerful tool that will help service personnel to connect with others, express what they really mean, navigate challenging situations, and build better relationships at work. Nonverbal communication, or body language, is a vital form of communication. When we interact with others, we continuously give and receive countless wordless signals. The gestures we make, they way we sit, how fast or how loud we talk, how close we stand, how much eye contact we make–all of these non-verbal behaviors send a strong message.

Nonverbal communication cues can play five roles:

Repetition: they can repeat the message the person is making verbally

Contradiction: they can contradict a message the individual is trying to convey

Substitution: they can substitute for a verbal message. For example, a person's eyes can often convey a far more vivid message than words and often do

Complementing: they may add to or complement a verbal message. A boss who pats a person on the back in addition to giving praise can increase the impact of the message

Accenting: they may accent or underline a verbal message. Pounding the table, for example, can underline a message.