THE PERCEIVED IMPORTANCE OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE (ICC) IN INTERNATIONAL TOURISM SETTINGS

Taking the view that human capital is one of the most important assets of the tourism and hospitality sector, the current study aims at exploring the industry's personnel's Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) as a specific set of characteristics and skills that might prove crucial in the context of international tourism. Specifically, the study investigates the four dimensions of ICC (attitudes, knowledge and understanding, skills, actions) by means of a 20-item research instrument developed from the ICC model by Barrett et al. (2014). Based on a sample of 132 respondents employed in the T&H sector, and 218 international tourists visiting the County of Istria, Croatia, during the 2019 tourist preseason, the study examines the differences in the perceived importance of the T&H personnel's ICC proficiency. Overall, the results show slight differences between the two groups' perceptions, with the tourists' expectations somewhat exceeding the personnel's intercultural awareness. However, statistically significant differences were found for two ICC dimensions: while the employees stress ICC skills acquired through formal education and professional experience, international tourists emphasise one's actions and a proactive stance in intercultural interactions as significantly more important for an individual to be regarded interculturally competent. In addition, the tourists emphasise one's ability of adapting to the various, culturally-determined verbal and non-verbal communicative conventions as an important skill in establishing efficient intercultural communication. The current findings have important practical implications for the tourism sector as they may provide a valuable tool in managing human resources and recruiting qualified personnel. They may also help tourism education and language experts in integrating intercultural awareness and ICC skills into formal curricula and help us in devising strategies to successfully improve interactions in intercultural settings.