Identifying the Ethical Competencies of International Tour Guides

Background: International tour guides, as the front line of touristschr('39') treatment of the destination community, have a great impact on tourist satisfaction and improve the quality of travel, and moral competencies are important. The purpose of this study is to identify the components of ethical competencies of international tour guides. Method: For conducting research, a mixed method based on Delphi technique has been used. The statistical population of the study consists of international tour guides and academic experts in the field of tourism. The number of samples was saturated with the participation of 28 university experts and the tourism industry according to the sampling method. The sampling method was unlikely and purposeful and snowball method was used to identify the experts. The research tool in the first stage (qualitative analysis) was a question in the form of a semi-structured interview and in the second and third stages (quantitative analysis) a researcher-made questionnaire. The Delphi technique was used to analyze the data in the qualitative stage and the Kendall mean and correlation coefficient methods were used in the quantitative stage. Results: The ethical competencies of international tour guides obtained based on experts chr('39')opinions include 17 components of positive attitude and gaining touristschr('39') trust, confidentiality, work commitment and lack of cooperation in providing tour services, etc. Conclusion: According to experts, moral competencies play a key role in satisfying international tourists, and in order to develop the tourism industry, it is necessary to prioritize the promotion of ethical models in the community of international tour guides. The results obtained in this study can help the managers of tour guidance training centers and tourism schools in empowering and training ethical tour guides.