FACULTY OF COMMERCE

DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY

MANAGEMENT

TOUR GUIDES EXPERIENCES WITH TOURISTS WITH

DISABILITIES IN ZIMBABWE

BY

NYASHA CHIKANYA

Registration number: R122157R

_____________________________________

This Dissertation is submitted in Partial Fulfillment of a Bachelor of Commerce (Honors) Degree

in Tourism and Hospitality Management at Midlands State University

Gweru, Zimbabwe

October, 2015
 RELEASE FORM

NAME OF STUDENT Nyasha Chikanya

DISSERTATION TITLE Tour guides experiences with tourists with

disabilities

DEGREE TITLE Bachelor of Commerce Tourism and

Hospitality Management, Honours Degree

YEAR GRANTED 2015

PERMANENT ADDRESS 7 Dobson Place Yeovil Mutare

CONTACT DETAILS +263 774 029 303

EMAIL ADDRESS [email protected]

SIGNED…………………………………………………………..

DATE……………………………………………………………..

Permission is hereby granted to the Midlands State University Library to produce single
copies of this dissertation and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific
research purpose only. The author does not reserve other publication rights of the dissertation
nor may make extensive extracts from it to be printed or otherwise reproduced without the
author’s written permission.

i|Page
 APPROVAL FORM

Midlands State University

The undersigned certify that they have supervised the student, Nyasha Chikanya
(R122157R) dissertation entitled: TOUR GUIDES EXPERIENCES WITH TOURISTS
WITH DISABILITIES IN ZIMBABWE, submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements of Bachelor of Commerce Tourism and Hospitality Management Honours
Degree at Midlands State University.

SUPERVISOR DATE

CHAIRPERSON DATE

LIBRARIAN DATE

ii | P a g e
 DEDICATION
To my Heavenly Father and my loving family.

iii | P a g e
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Firstly I would like to acknowledge my loving parents for the support and encouragement
that they gave me throughout my Honours programme and supervisor, Dr O. Chikuta for the
help and direction he afforded me. Lastly I would like to acknowledge all the respondents in
this study who gave their time to attend to my research, setting aside their busy schedules.

iv | P a g e
 ABSTRACT

The market of tourists with disabilities is rapidly growing globally but little is known about
tour guides experiences with people with disabilities. The group consists of a sizeable and
escalating percentage of the travel market, implying that there is need for the tour guiding
industry to have the capability to cater for them. The study aimed at identifying the
experiences that tour guides had when guiding tourists with disabilities, the challenges that
they faced and the concerns of the tourists with disabilities during tours. The market of
tourists with disabilities seem to have less holiday offers or alternative activities offered in
the tour guiding industry and thus reduces the level of experience encountered with them in
the tour guiding sector. The developing countries have had very little research on the
experiences that tour guides have with tourists with disabilities despite having tourism
literature that supports tour guides and their contribution to tourist experience in the industry.
Tourists see sites through the eyes of the guide who plays an important role in creating their
experience. The study used face to face interviews and also made use of focus groups
interviews to get an in-depth understanding from the tour guides. Non-probability, namely
convenience and judgmental sampling method was also used with tour guides of museums
and national parks.The study findings indicated that tour guiding facilities had limited
activities that are offered to people with disabilities, physical disability as the only disability
that the sector was currently catering for despite the existence of other disabilities and the
main barriers being inaccessible environment and equipment. The study concluded that the
industry had inadequate information about tourists with disabilities and thus was failing to
fully serve the market which was the reason why it catered for the physically disabled only,
experienced such barriers and offered a limited number of activities to tourists with
disabilities. Lastly the study recommended that the tour guiding facilities offer training to
their guides, provide and create a user friendly environment and equipment so as to cater for
all kinds of tourists with disabilities.

v|Page
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

RELEASE FORM ii

APPROVAL FORM iii

DEDICATION iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v

ABSTRACT vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS vii

LIST OF FIGURES xi

LIST OF TABLES xii

CHAPTER ONE 1

INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Background of the study 1

1.3 Statement of the Problem 3

1.4 Research Objectives. 4

1.5 Research questions 4

1.6 Significance of the Study 5

1.7 Research Methodology 5

1.8 Delimitations 5

1.9 Limitations 6

1.10 Definition of terms 6

1.11 Chapter summary 6

CHAPTER TWO 8

vi | P a g e
LITERATURE REVIEW 8

2.1 introduction 8

2.2Tour guiding: An Overview 8

2.3Roles of tour guides 8

2.3.1Tour guides as Originals 10

2.3.2Tour guides as Animators 10

2.3.3Tour guides as Tour leaders 10

2.3.4Tour guides as professionals 11

2.3.5 Tour guides as Mediators and Culture brokers 12

2.4 Types of Tour Guiding 13

2.4.1 Tour guide 15

2.4.2 Tour leader 16

2.4.3 Site-based guide 16

2.5 Understanding People with Disabilities 17

2.5.1 Travel Trends and Patterns of People with Disabilities 18

2.6 Tour Guiding and People with Disabilities 19

2.7 Concerns of People with disabilities in Tour Guiding 20

2.8 Challenges faced by Tour Guides 22

2.9 Implications of the Literature Review 24

2.10Chapter summary 25

CHAPTER THREE 27

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 27

3.1 Introduction 27

vii | P a g e
3.2 Research design 27

3.3 Sampling strategy 28

3.3.1 Study population 28

3.3.2 Sampling design 28

3.4 Data collection 29

3.4.1 Primary data 30

3.4.2 Secondary data 30

3.5 Research instruments 30

3.5.1 Face to Face Interviews 30

3.6 Data analysis 32

3.7 Chapter Summary 33

CHAPTER FOUR 34

DATA PRESENTATION, DISCUSSIONS AND ANALYSIS 34

4.1 Introduction 34

4.2 Response rate 34

4.3 Demographic profile of respondents 34

4.4 Findings 35

4.4.1 Types of disabilities that the facilities mainly receive 36

4.4.2 Facilities and activities offered by the Military Museum 38

4.4.4 Activities that tourists with disabilities choose 40

4.4.5 Concerns of people with disabilities 41

4.3.6 Challenges faced by tour guides when guiding tourists with disabilities 43

viii | P a g e
4.4.7 Positive and negative experience encountered when guiding tourists with
Disabilities 44
4.5 Chapter Summary 46

CHAPTER FIVE 47

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 47

5.1 Introduction 47

5.2 Summary 47

5.3 Achievement of research objectives 48

5.4 Conclusion 49

5.5 Recommendations 49

5.6 Suggestions for further research 49

REFERENCES 50

APPENDICES 56

ix | P a g e
 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Tour guide roles matrix 9

Figure 2.2 The guiding field title continuum 15

Figure 4.1 Activities thst tourists with disabilities choose 40

Figure 4.2 Tourists with disabilities concerns according to feedback given by tour guides 43

x|Page
 LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1Types of tour guides according to genres and setting 14

Table 3.1 Sample population 28

Table 4.1 Interview response rate 34

Table 4.2 Age distribution demographics 35

Table 4.3 Tour guide types from the available respondents 36

Table 4.4 Interviewees’ disability encounters 37

Table 4.5 Preferred activities by tourists with disabilities 41

Table 4.6 Interviewees challenges faced when guiding tourists with disabilities 44

xi | P a g e
 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the research and provides the background of the study, statement of
the problem, study objectives, research questions, and the significance of the study. It also
looks at the delimitations and limitations of the study, as well as definition of terms and
chapter summary.

1.2 Background of the study

While there are various definitions of a tour guide, an internationally accepted definition
given by the International Association of Tour Managers and the European Federation of
Tourist Guide Associations (EFTGA) is that a tour guide is a person who guides groups or
individual visitors from abroad or from the home country around the monuments, sites and
museums of a city or region; to interpret in an inspiring and entertaining manner, in the
language of the visitor's choice, the cultural and natural heritage and environment (EFTGA,
1998). Guided tours can be categorised using a number of different criteria, which can either
be setting, environment or purpose, length, types of clients and activity of the guiding
industry (Black & Weiler, 2005; Pond, 1993). Types of tour guiding can be generalised for
mass tourism, escorting for packaged tours, nature based or Eco tour, adventure guiding,
heritage and city guiding.

Studies in tour guides experiences have been done all over. Wong et al., (1998) conducted a
study on the attributes of tour guiding in Taiwan. It assessed the existing level of professional
service standards and identified issues and challenges faced by the profession. Tour guiding
issues were identified through a series of in depth and focus interviews of tour guides and
tourists and integrating many secondary data. The findings concluded that there was need to
establish a service system to ensure high standards of service performance by tour guides. It
recognised that the experiences faced by the Taiwanese tour guides are unlikely to be unique
and there may be some issues and problems raised that are common to the guiding profession
in most other countries. The study spilt factors that satisfy tourists into internal and external
factors. The internal factors being psychological feel, knowledge anxiety level and service
environment atmosphere; and the external factors being culture impact dimension,

1|Page
contingency planning and guiding perspective. The research indicates that many engineer
designs have been done to improve tour guide service, however engineers design only
consider what service process can be changed, and what new technology could be used.
However the study findings did not incorporate results from the market of people with
disabilities. The challenges identified in this study did not cater for those experienced by tour
guides when guiding tourists with disabilities. Also the internal factors and external factors
that were discovered did not imply to the disabled market in this study.

In Germany and Denmark, Nicolaisena, Blichfeldta and Sonnenschein (2012) undertook a

study focusing on the understanding and facilitation of accessible leisure and tourism for the
disabled, using medical and social models of disability in the tourism providers’ perspective.
It showed underlying reasons why destination marketing/management organisations and
tourist destination service providers do not provide accessible services for people with
disabilities have largely been neglected (Darcy, 2004; Packer et al., 2008), and inclusion of
supply-side orientated research therefore seemed to be a critical step in advancing accessible
tourism (Darcy, 2006; Darcy & Harris, 2003). In relation to the study, it noted that disability
can be viewed from a variety of perspectives. These perspectives have profound implications
for the provision of services for people with disabilities. It implied that there was more
complexity in offering tourism product to the disable market than anticipated. Thus, the
development of accessible tourism is not only dependent upon the needs and wants of people
with disabilities, but also upon the enactment of both the demand and supply sides. Their
argument however did not bring out the type of alternative holidays or facilities that can be
therefore offered to people with disabilities inorder for them to enjoy their visits just as much
as the able bodied do and it did not view out their concerns.

Makoni (2006) persists that due to aging, chronic diseases, injuries, accidents and other
causes, the World Health Organisation (WHO) (2011) estimated that there are more than 650
million individuals with disabilities and the population is increasing. The rising number of
people with disabilities has a great implication on the hospitality industry. UN human rights
have been in existence since 1948 and specified that people with disabilities should enjoy the
same rights as those without disabilities (UN, 2008). Since Zimbabwe attained independence
in 1980, tourism became the fastest growing sector until 2000’s economic meltdown.
Zimbabwe was one of the first countries to adopt the disability legislation in 1992. It
comprises of people with disabilities who need to have facilities readily in place regardless of
2|Page
its patronage and considering Zimbabwe’s tourism industry which has started booming
significantly, the probability of receiving long haul of people with disabilities as tourist is
high.

The Zimbabwean government has shown concern for the people with disabilities in terms of
policy formulation and is a signatory to the convention on the rights of people with
disabilities. Policies such as The Disabled Act of 1992 together with other acts like Medical,
Dental, Allied professions Act, Education Act of 1987 and the Manpower Planning and
Development Act of 1984 have been put in place by the Zimbabwean government. These
Acts outlined policies for people with disabilities include building accessibility and provision
of services or amenities that are ordinarily provided to mainstream abled people. However
some policies are not in full operation due to lack of finances to enforce them. The
Zimbabwean tourism industry has not had much research on the experiences of tour guiding
with regards to the people with disabilities which is the main aim of this study. Despite
having so many Acts that support disabled people in the country there is very little
knowledge of how to cater for the disabled tourists, the holidays that can be offered to them
and the challenges most likely to be faced whilst doing so in the tour guiding industry.

With such evidence from different parts of the world the researcher was motivated to look
into the issue of the experience of tour guides with tourists with disabilities. This study
showed to have a gap of the supply side being fully researched.

1.3 Statement of the problem

While most tourism literature supports tour guides and their contribution to tourist
experiences, very little in the developing countries has been researched to show experiences
of tour guides with tourists with disabilities. There is a knowledge gap of how the interactions
between the guide and tourists with disabilities participating in the guided tours influence the
tour guides experience. Tourists see sites through the eyes of the guide who plays an
important role in creating their experience. The guide is the one who is responsible for the
quality of the tour and provides a meaningful performance (Holloway, 1980; Overend, 2012).
However little research has been done on the experiences of tour guides with tourists with
disabilities.

3|Page
1.4 Research objectives
A review of the problem led to the identification of the following research objective:
1. To establish the types of holidays that tour guides have had with people with
disability concerns.
2. To explore the concerns that people with disabilities have reported during tours.
3. To find out the challenges that tour guides have encountered when taking people with
disabilities on a tour.
4. To provide a set of recommendation on measures that can be taken by the tour
guiding industry to better accommodate the disabled tourists market.

1.5 Research questions

1. What type of holidays do tour guides offer people with disabilities?
2. What challenges have tour guides faced when tour guiding with the disabled tourists?
3. What are the services that are offered to better suit the disabled tourists during tours?
4. What sort of feedback do the tour guides get from the tourists with disabilities?
5. Which actions are being taken to implement and improve the accessibility in tour
guiding facilities for people with disabilities?

1.6 Significance of the study

There is a knowledge gap pertaining to what tour guides experience whilst serving the market
of the tourists with disabilities. There is also a gap on tourists or visitor preference when it
comes to the activities they can partake in during the tour. Most tour guiding facilities do not
have alternative activities for this market to ensure that they enjoy the tour just as much as the
able bodied tourist. Therefore the study will assists the industry on how to make properly
tailor made tour guides that will deliver the same experience to this market and thus retain
return visits. It also gives an analysis of the challenges that the guides encounter during
service delivery and how that affects the authenticity of the tour and goes further to give
solutions for these challenges. Thus the study will be of great significance to tour guides
facilities because it is more based on the supply side and it will provide valuable information
that can be used by tour guiding industry to acknowledge and close the gap in regards to
serving the market of people with disabilities. The research will also be useful for future
reference on other similar researches by other students and to extend the degree of knowledge
in the field.

4|Page
1.7 Research Methodology
The study used face to face interviews with the tour guides. It also made use of focus groups
interviews to get an in-depth understanding from the tour guides. Non-probability, namely
convenience and judgemental sampling method was also used to select tour guides of
museums and national parks.

1.8 Delimitations
The study area of this research was Bally Vaughn Game Park, Antelope Park in Gweru and
Gweru Military museum. The study population constituted of the tour guides who had an
experience in the field as they had the chance to encounter what is required to better serve
tourists with disabilities. The researcher used mostly qualitative and quantitative research
method to collect data. On the qualitative side, judgemental sampling was used to select
representatives of tour guides who had previous encounters with tourists with disability while
convenience sampling was used to select the study sites.

1.9 Limitations
People with disabilities and the aged are a growing market for the tourism market and their
potential contribution to tourism is enormous (Darcy, 2010). The knowledge of their
lifestyles and trends still remains under different societal presumptions. They remain to be a
group that is stigmatised and most people are not comfortable or are unease to talk about
them and the effects they have on different issues in society. The findings of this study could
not highlight the experiences of tour guides from other parts of the developing countries or
from developed countries as it was a study on the case of Zimbabwean tour guides only and
their experiences with tourists with disabilities.

1.10 Definition of terms

Tour guide - A person, usually a professional, who guides groups or individual visitors or
tourists around venues or places of interest such as natural areas, historic buildings and sites,
and landscapes of a city or region, and who interprets the cultural and natural heritage in an
inspiring and entertaining manner (Black & Weiler, 2005).

Experiences - Overall personal evaluation (Oxford dictionary, 2008).

5|Page
Tourist – A person travelling from their own place of residence for more than a day but for
less than a year for recreational purposes (Lockwood & Medlik, 2001).

Disability - Any restriction or lack (resulting from an impairment) of ability to perform an

activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being (United
Nations, 2008).

1.11 Chapter Summary

The chapter highlighted that there is limited information regarding the experience that tour
guides go through with tourists with disabilities. The introduction briefly mentioned the
structure of the chapter. The background of the study which showed where the research
problem emanated from was explained in this chapter. The problem statement was
highlighted being the lack of knowledge of tour guides experiences with tourists with
disabilities which gave reason for the research to be done. The research objectives were listed
showing what the research seeks to achieve, thereafter the research questions were built up
from the research objectives. The limitations of the study like the stigmatisation of people
with disabilities and how they still remain to be a topic that brings a lot of agitation for
discussionand others were faced in the study and were resolved by holding other factors
constant so as to maintain the validity of the research and the delimitations were also sated in
the chapter. The chapter offered definition of terms used in the context. Chapter 2 will focus
on literature review which will give the philosophies, theories and beliefs that underpin the
research.

6|Page
 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

This chapter reviews the literature relative to the experience of tour guides with guests with
disabilities. It provides literature from other studies that were conducted to reveal the
experiences they encounter in accessible tourism. Furthermore this section exposes the gaps
that will be filled by the current study. Lastly the chapter outlines the implication of the
literature review.

2.2 Tour guiding: An Overview

A tour guide is described as a leader who directs people through attractions, showing them
what to look at, where to position themselves inorder to view the attractions and does so in
entertaining interpretive ways (Zillinger et al., 2012). At the centre of experience the guide is
required to be at once a performer, entertainer and an interpreter (Overend, 2012). The
Professional Tour Guide Association of San Antonio believes that the secret for a tour guide
to deliver a successful tour is if the tour guide loves and enjoys the subject that they will be
presenting to the tourists (The Professional Tour Guide Association of San Antonio website).
Professional Tour Guide Association of San Antonio (1997) define a tour guide as a person
with an effective combination of enthusiasm, knowledge, personality qualities and high
standards of conduct and ethics who leads groups to the important sites, while providing
interpretation and commentary. Tour guiding has been an area of research activity for the
past years. Robotic (2010) asserts that Cohen (1985) was the pioneer of making tourists
guiding a matter of scientific and gave the origins and evolution of the role of tour guides.

2.3 Roles of tour guides

Cohen (1985), identified that tour guides serve four major functions which are: instrumental,
social, interactionary, and communicative and he recognises four types of guides which are:
Originals, Animators, Tour Leaders, and Professionals. Cohen (1985) claims professionals
are similar to mentors, but while the original role of the mentor was spiritual and intellectual
guidance, the communicative function of the professional/mentor tour guide has four
components:

7|Page
(1) Itinerary selection (what to see and experience, as well as what not to see);
(2) Correct and precise information dissemination;
(3) Interpretation of what is seen and experienced; and
(4) Fabrication, which is, presenting fake information as though it were genuine/true.

In agreement with this, Weiler and Ham (2000: 1) believed that the interpretive skills of tour
guides can enhance the quality of tourists’ experiences as they saw that the interpretation
skills lied at the tour guides ability to know what can and should be done. The findings of
these authors did not look at the fact that tourists interests can differ and how the functions
and the components that make up the tour guiding are applicable to tourists with disabilities.

Cohen produced a 2×2 matrix of tour guide roles. He referred to the outer-directed aspect of
the leadership sphere as the instrumental component and the inner-directed aspect as the
social component. He called the outer-directed aspect within the mediatory sphere the
‘interactional component’ and the inner-directed aspect the ‘communicative component’.
Correspondingly, each of these components was identified with a role name: in order, the
pathfinder, the animator, the tour-leader and the mentor. The concrete responsibilities
attached to each of these roles are shown in the framework.
Figure 2.1: Cohen (1985) Tour guide roles Matrix

Figure showing the classification of tour guides and the function that lie under each
classification.

Source: adapted from Cohen, (1985)

8|Page
2.3.1 Tour guides as Originals
Originals are pathfinders and their primary function is to perform the instrumental function of
showing the way. Their main mission is to make sure that tourists reach their destination and
return safely. They are often called path breakers because they select the route and the
attractions and make them accessible to tourists. However, they point out objects of interest
without offering elaborate explanations. Briefly, the pathfinder role relates to the guide’s duty
to bring about the smooth accomplishment of the tour.

2.3.2 Tour guides as Animators

Animators’ task is to perform the social function by interacting and socialising with tourists,
being friendly, listening and respecting their preferences. The animator role involves
facilitating relationships, bringing cohesion and morale, and creating an entertaining
atmosphere within the touring party. For the guide to be effective during interpretation,
she/he should organise and convey information in ways that capture and maintain the
audience’s attention, while at the same time entertaining and inspiring the tourists (Ham &
Weiler, 2005). Inorder to carry out their duties effectively communication competency of tour
guides is essential in national parks (Oschell, 2009). Tour guides rely mainly on their
experiences to know whether or not they are effective in their interpretation. However the
researches do not indicate these experiences in context with people with disabilities. Also,
humour, analogies, metaphors, opportunities to ask questions, provision of variety, and
structuring logically presented information help to build the interaction links between the tour
guide and the visitors.

2.3.3 Tour guides as Tour leaders

Tour Leaders perform the function of facilitating the interaction among tourists and the
environment that they will be touring. The distinction between the tour leader role and the
mentor role lies in the fact that in the first case, the leader performs social duties of
interaction and the mentor is of information dissemination. The guide is then conceptualized
as a social middleman when looked at as a tour leader and the mentor role makes them a
cultural mediator. As a tour leader, the guide mediates sites and institutions as well as tourism
facilities between his party and the local community.

9|Page
2.3.4 Tour guides as professionals
Professionals perform the duty of transferring detailed information to the tourists their
function is mainly communicative (e.g. telling and explaining to tourists where, when and
why they should look at particular items, how to behave) and interpreting attractions, sites
and experiences (Cohen, 1985). They also serve as a mentor, and as a mentor, they pass on
and mediate information and knowledge to the tourist. Specifically, they point out objects of
interest to the touring party and then give explanations by introducing figures or facts about
these objects. In cross-cultural settings, they also need to translate any strangeness into a
cultural idiom familiar to the client. Nevertheless the matrix does not show where he function
guiding tourists with disabilities and being able to provide for their special needs will lie.

Wang et al., (2002) report that tour guides’ presentation skills could make or break a tour. Ap
and Wong (2001) and Kimmel (nd) believe tour guides’ interpretive work plays a vital role in
enhancing visitors’ experience and understanding of a destination and its culture. Ap and
Wong (2001) assert that tour guides, through their knowledge and understanding of a
destination’s attractions and culture and through their communication skills, transform
tourists’ visits from tours into experiences. The interpretative skills that make the tour guide
as ascribed by these authors did not show how this can be related to tourists with disabilities
contexts.

A connection between the information that is being given by the tour guides and the previous
knowledge that the tourists had can only be enabled if the tour guide has effective
interpretation skills (Moscardo et al., 2004: 13). This can be achieved by using clear, simple
explanations to reduce the gap between the information and visitors’ current knowledge. In
agreement with this Goh, (2008:10) and Carbone (2006) assert that communication
competencies are the lifeblood of effective interpretation. It is generally accepted that inorder
to promote the economic development, environmental quality and conservation and socio-
cultural sustenance of tourism of a given site the interpretation that is given to the tourists
should be educative, stimulating and entertaining (Moscardo, 1999; Luck, 2003).
Interpretation therefore shapes the experiences of the tourist and knowledge of the features of
the place as well as their awareness of inappropriate activities they should avoid (Hu, 2007;
Ap & Wong, 2001). The interpretation and the issues or matters to be avoided can differ
according to the tourists’ physical and mental ability but the authors did not look further into
that.
10 | P a g e
Tour guides are the essential interface between the host destination and its visitors. In fact,
the delivery of overall impression and satisfaction through their tour guiding services is the
responsibility of the tour guide. Researches have indicated that the performance of tour
guides is an important attribute to the success of a tour (Geva & Goldman, 1991), while
Mossberg (1995) noted that the tour guide was regarded an important element in selecting a
charter tour. In essence, the work of a tour guide not only involves the transmission of
information, but also presenting it in an interesting and sincere manner (John, 2001). The
above authors definitions and explanatory measures they took did not however incorporate
the essentiality of the tour guide when then touring with tourists with disabilities which is
what this study aims to do.

Pond (1993) asserts that tour guides help tourists to understand the places they visit.
Holloway (1981) notes that information giving is of greatest importance in the tour guides’
drive for professional status. According to Ap and Wong (2001), interpretive functions that
tour guides perform in their work are mediating and culture broking. Tour guides mediate
between tourists and locals and the environment. The mediator and cultural broker functions,
as suggested by these authors, refers to the interpretive aspects of the tour guide's work
which plays a vital role in enhancing the visitors' experience at a destination and their
understanding of the destination and its culture.

2.3.5 Tour guides as Mediators and Culture brokers

Mediating is mainly about leading tourists to draw their own conclusions and learn from what
the tour guide would have said during the tour. It moves beyond telling tourists how to think
and feel about their experiences. Culture broking in tour guiding means taking mainstream
values and communicating them to ethnic cultures (Gentemann & Whitehead, 1983). A
culture broker links across cultures that facilitate instructional processes through thoroughly
understanding different cultural systems, interpreting those cultural systems from one frame
of reference to another and mediating cultural incompatibilities (Gay, 1993). Where language
is a problem culture broking goes beyond the guide being able to just interpret languages
which is an important attribute in cross-cultural situations. Michie (2004) suggests that tour
guide culture brokers interpret the culture of a given destination. The above researchers all
agreed in the tour guiding being seen through culture broking but their attribute description
only limit tour guiding to the heritage tourism industry whereas so many other tourism
industries can use tour guiding and they do not incorporate the culture of tourists with
11 | P a g e
disabilities in their findings. Tourists with disabilities have a different culture from the able
bodied tourist but culture broking has not been extended to cover their market.

Tour guide roles are also discussed by Ap and Wong (2001), where they see tour guides as
front-line players who are responsible for impressing and transforming tourists from a tour to
an experience in the tourism industry. In agreement with this Pond (1993) asserts that the tour
guide plays the role of an ambassador and helps tourists to understand the places they visit. In
a similar manner Tran and King (2007) see guide’s role as a key role in audience
engagement. Cross (1991), Mancini (1990) and Pond (1993) provide useful practical hands-
on information about tour guiding practice, professionalism, and address issues such as the
role of guiding, guiding skills and techniques, and the problems and issues that a guide may
face when leading a tour. Pond (1993), for example, indicated that the role of the guide
includes one who is:
(1) A leader capable of assuming responsibility;
(2) An educator to help the guest understand the places they visit;
(3) An ambassador who extends hospitality and presents the destination in a way that make
visitors want to return;
(4) A host who can create a comfortable environment for the guest; and;
(5) A facilitator who knows how and when to fulfil the previous four roles. However in his
findings, Pond (1993) did not incorporate the capability of the tour guides to attend to the
special needs of tourists with disabilities as a role they are capable of performing.

2.4 Types of Tour Guiding

Guided tours can be categorized using a number of different criteria, including purpose,
settings and environment (Pond, 1993; Black & Weiler, 2005), subject matter, length, types
of clients and activity, reflecting the heterogeneity of the guiding industry (Weiler & Black,
2014). There is no agreed typology of guided tours based on these or any other characteristics
(Weiler & Black, 2014). A number of types of guiding as aligning with well-known tourism
genres and settings were presented by these authors, as a typology reflecting a contemporary
picture of tour guiding (Weiler & Black, 2014). An individual tour guide can work in more
than one genre and perform specific categories as their roles and responsibilities varying with
a number of variables, such as site, season or employer (Weiler & Black, 2014).

12 | P a g e
Generalist’s tour guides have tours based on hours but they never extend to more than 24
hours whilst tour escorting have extended tours and these are both usually done for groups or
mass tourism. Nature tour guides are mainly those who guide tourists around natural
environments, adventure are involved in adrenaline pumping activities on land, sea and air
tourism activities. Heritage are mainly about transmitting historical information of a certain
tourist site and city guides are within the urban area that the tourist visit (Weiler & Black,
2014).

Table 2.1 Tour guide types according to tourism genre and setting

Source: Weiler and Black, (2014)

Table showing the types of tour guides according to their setting and tourism genres.

According to Hu (2007) tour guides are also known as tour leaders, tour managers, tour
escorts, local guides, docents and interpreters. Various typologies have been provided by
academic researchers and industry practitioners with the intention to address the confusion
13 | P a g e
that arises from the naming that is given to the tour guides. Poynter (1993) presented a guide
hierarchy in trying to create an understanding of the types of guides by showing how terms
are positioned in the guiding field title continuum (Figure 2.2). Using professional level as
the criterion, the continuum starts with the step-on guide, the entry-level position, and ends
with the tour manager, the most experienced and professional in the guiding field. Others like
docent, tour guides, tour leader, escort and interpreter are located at different points between
the ends of the continuum. The continuum did not however place or name tour guides
according to their experiences which is a major factor in their qualifications as experience is
what is considered the most in the tourism industry and there was no place for the function of
guiding with tourists with disabilities.

Figure 2.2: The guiding field title continuum

Source: Poynter, (1993)

The above figure shows the tour guiding continuum as postulated by Poynter (1993),
indicating the hierarchy of guides in the tourism industry. These are stages that the tour
guides go through in development of their experiences, responsibilities, duties and positions.
2.4.1 Tour guide

Pond (1993) differentiated a tour guide from a tour manager by considering that the major
task of a tour guide as to give an in-depth commentary about the destination while a tour
manager, as the name implies, manages administrative and logistical aspects of the tour to
make certain matters regarding the tour a smooth trip. The guide ensures that the itinerary is
followed, that travellers have satisfactory hotel rooms and meals, and that local sightseeing
trips and promised events actually happen. Mancini (2001) further pointed out that the term

14 | P a g e
‘tour guide’ is often used within the industry as a synonym for ‘local guide’, that is, it
includes both site-based guides and non-site-specific guides.

2.4.2 Tour leader

Tour directors, the synonym of tour manager, tour leader or tour escort, provides multi-day
services with additional planning duties to tourists during a guide. Hounaklang (2004)
distinguished a tour guide from other titles by the following descriptions. He saw a tour guide
as a person who imparted information during an itinerary and conducted tourists around
places of interest in a country. A tour courier’s was distinguished as a person who focused on
the welfare of the tourists in terms of their accommodation and transport during their visits
and accompanies tem everywhere to ensure that is achieved during the tour. A tour manager
often combines the above duties, but with an emphasis on courier responsibilities, and works
chiefly internationally, accompanying tourists on extended tours of several countries. A guide
lecturer accompanies a group of nationally and international tourists and imparts information
and giving lectures where appropriate. This type of guide is a person who is a specialist in
particular areas or fields of knowledge. And yet again no distinguished tittle was given to the
tour guides according to the duties that they perform when guiding with tourists with
disabilities.

According to the nature of employers, the word tour guide may include a wide range of
guides such as government guides, business or industry guides, community guides and self-
employed guides. Braidwood, Boyce and Cropp (1996) divided the guiding business into
two categories: local guides and tour directors. Local guides were further subcategorized into
site guides, step-on guides, driver guides and meet-and-greet guides. Usually, they serve no
longer than a single day.

2.4.3 Site-based guide

In the case of the site-based guides, also called interpreters, their duties come to an end after
their visitors leave the site that the guide is being conducted at. The non-site-specific guide
accompany tourists throughout their itinerary until the guests leave the destination area.
Mancini (2001) states that on-site guides are based at a specific setting such as a building,
limited area or an attraction and conduct tours for specific duration (an hour or more). Tours
are usually done by or through a vehicle whereby the guide conducts guiding roles on board
as tourists travel around an area. The Kwa Zulu Natal Guide Newsletter (2007) adds that on-
site guides do have minimum requirements such as knowledge of the area and it serves as

15 | P a g e
pre-requisites to guide within that specific area. On-site guides are further divided into
subgroups and these are i) docents and ii) personal or private guides (Mancini, 2001).

Docents
Docents are those guides who conduct interpretations and offer explanatory services in
confined places such as museums, and historic buildings. Considering the fact that they work
in safely homes, historic houses, castles, cathedrals, factories, and other venues for tourists’
docents can also be called in-house guides (Collins, 2000). Docents usually work on free of
charge basis because most of them work as volunteers. A docent specifically works at a
museum. However, due to the growth of professionalism in the travel and tourism industry,
in-house guides are now being paid (Collins, 2000).

Personal or private guides

Personal or private guides usually accompany tourists within boundaries of a limited
geographical area and have deeper and wider knowledge base of the area in which they
execute their duties (Mancini, 2001). The guides will be able to answer any questions that the
tourists might have as they will have full knowledge that particular area and its surrounding
sites as long as they are in a confined geographical area. The authors were again able to give
classification of tour guides according to function but none was given to those that tour with
tourists with disabilities.

2.5 Understanding People with Disabilities

Disability can be described as any restriction or lack (resulting from an impairment) of ability
that one encounters which hinders them from performing an activity in the manner or within
the range considered as normal for a human being (United Nations, 2008). The UK Disability
Discrimination Act describes a disabled person as someone who “has a physical or mental
impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his/her ability to carry
out normal day-to-day activities” (Office of Public Sector Information, 1995). Disability
means that a person may have physical, cognitive/mental, sensory, emotional, developmental
impairment or some combination of these. Disability can be categorized into four different
types: hearing disability, sight disability, physical disability and intelligence deficiency
(Daniels, Rodgers, & Wiggins, 2005).

There are two important declarations on the issue of people with disabilities. The first is the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948. It states that all human beings are

16 | P a g e
born free and are equal in dignity and rights. Moreover, every- one is entitled to all the rights
and freedoms set forth in that declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race,
colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property,
birth or other status (article 2). It is also declared that everyone has the right to freedom of
movement (article 13) and the right to rest and leisure (article 24) (United Nations, 1948).
The second is the Manila Declaration on World Tourism in 1980. It declares that the ultimate
aim of tourism is to improve the quality of life and the creation of better living conditions for
all peoples (World Tourism Organization, 1980). Despite having all these legal support for
people with disabilities in the tourism industry the market still fails to fully supply or cater for
their needs and concerns with regard to tour guiding.

2.5.1 Travel Trends and Patterns of People with Disabilities

Research on the needs and experiences of people with disabilities in the hospitality sector has
grown rapidly in recent years (Darcy, 2010; McKercher et al., 2003; Poria, Reichel, &
Brandt, 2011, 2010). The need for promoting accessible tourism has been realised because of
the rising number of people with disabilities, recognition of the potential market for profits
and civil right to holidays (Poria, Reichel, & Brandt, 2009). According to the World Health
Organization (2007), approximately 650 million people worldwide now have some form of
disability, which gives an average of 10% of the population throughout the world. The
average rate of disability varies from 10% to 20% of the population in Western developed
countries, while in China around 6% of the population have disabilities, representing roughly
83 million people. By 2030, this figure is expected to rise to between 85 million and 87
million (China Disabled Persons’ Federation, 2013). The number of people with disabilities is
increasing because medical technological advancements now support more of them to survive
and live an active life (Saito, 2006). Due to these medical advancements people with
disabilities are now capable of travelling even more but the tour guiding industry is failing to
have any advancements inorder for them to cater for the tourists with disabilities as well.

Studies show that persons with disabilities spend a significant amount of their earning during
their trips which indicates their active participation in tourism activities. The EU forum
(2001) estimates that 70% of people with disabilities are capable of and desire to participate
in tourism activities. Yet, one third of them have never travelled abroad on day trips because
of accessibility problems (European Disability Forum, 2001). Another study shows that
travellers with disabilities took 31.7 million trips per year in the United States and spent

17 | P a g e
$13.6 billion annually. These travellers would double their travel spending if enhancements
to accessibility such as service and amenities were made (Open Doors Organization, 2005).
Westcott (2004) and Burnett and Bender-Baker (2001) added that customers with disabilities
are loyal customers. They often return to places that provide good accessibility and services.
All of these studies find that people with disabilities represent a significant yet untapped
market. These findings gave reason for the researcher to investigate what tour guiding as an
industry is doing to become accessible to tourists with disabilities.

Daniels et al., (2005); McKercher et al., (2003), Shaw and Coles, (2004) increasingly call for
research that explores the experiences of disabled tourists – research that goes beyond the
study of accessibility. Unfortunately, at present, not much research emphasises travel
motivations, experiences, vacation decision-making, of disabled tourists. For example, Yau et
al., (2004) note that there is need for the examination of an individual’s own tourism career.
As such, it seems that more research that focuses on the tourist with disabilities is needed if
there are wishes to move research on tourists with disabilities beyond its current state and
hence, make it a research topic in its own right. Furthermore the research is very inadequate
in relation to tour guiding tourists with disabilities.

2.6 Tour Guiding and People with Disabilities

The experiences of travellers with disabilities can be seen through the museum sector. Poria
et al., (2009) investigated barriers that Israelis with disabilities face while visiting art
museums using the in-depth personal interview method. Their research results indicated that
the staff attitude and the interaction with tourists with disabilities was an important non-
physical element to the tour. Those elements were reported as major barriers to achieving a
full museum experience. Another study was done on the experiences of tourists with
disabilities in remote natural settings (Lovelock, 2010). The study was done through the
comparison of attitudes regarding the development of further motorized access to natural and
wilderness areas between individuals with mobility disabilities and able-bodied individuals. It
was noted that while all respondents experienced access-related problems, the mobility-
disability group encountered significantly more challenges when traveling in wilderness
areas. Richards et al., (2010) presented a critical analysis of the tourism encounters of
individuals with vision impairments and identified a general lack of awareness with regard to
the psychological impact of sight loss as a major issue for the hospitality service providers.

18 | P a g e
Poria et al., (2009) conducted in-depth interviews in Israel with experts including doctors and
managers of museums, along with residents with disabilities, and discovered that people with
disabilities faced difficulties before, during, and after their visit to museums. This study
further supported the previous studies in that people with disabilities faced difficulties related
to physical and human environments of museums, which covered staff attitudes and services,
information and communication. Examples of specific areas were routes to and from the
museums and interpretations of the museum exhibits, and the chances to socialize with other
visitors. These studies were able to show the interaction that lies between tour guides and
people with disabilities but however it is based on the demand side whereas the study focus
on the supply side of tour guiding.

2.7 Concerns of People with disabilities in Tour Guiding

A number of scholars have also investigated leisure constraints by demographic features such
as age and types of disabilities. One example is the study of Sparrow and Mayne (1990),
which explored the recreation patterns of 18-35 year-olds with intellectual disabilities. The
study took note of various constraining factors, including limited access to facilities and
transportation services, financial constraints, distances to recreation locations, and attitudinal
barriers. Wilhite and Keller (1992) studied the leisure involvement of older adults with
developmental disabilities, and the most predominant leisure constraints reported in the study
were limited access to transportation services, financial constraints, limited physical
accessibility, and concerns about their behaviour and discomfort in large public groups. The
study did not however look at the experiences of tour guides with tourists with disabilities.

Turco, Stumbo, and Garncarz (1998) pointed out that people with disabilities are capable of
participating in tourism activities. However, for that to be possible there was need for
arrangements that would allow them to be included in tourism activities. These arrangements
included tourist attractions, information resources, and transportation, accommodation, and
food and beverage facilities transformation inorder to cater for tourists with disabilities. Some
countries have made legal regulations about this issue. According to Miller and Kirk (2002),
the USA enacted into Law the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, and the UK
passed the Law of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) in 1995; both play important
roles, especially in the tourism industry. Turkey passed “the Law for Disabled People” in July

19 | P a g e
2005. The aim of this law is to help disabled people in the following areas: health, education,
rehabilitation, employment, and care and social security problems. The law also serves to
provide assistance in every area and aspect of their lives, by taking measures to remove any
obstacles and by making appropriate arrangements for the coordination of these services.
These would include easy access to public buildings, roads, sidewalks, pavements and other
properties deemed to be in the public realm .The laws that were applied were not enforced in
the tour guiding industry to ensure that people with disabilities would get access in this
industry.

Accessibility barriers are considered as one of the major determinant that can affect the travel
incentive and experience of people with disabilities, thus the term “accessible tourism” has
been advocated in many tourism studies. Accessible tourism can be implemented if more
details are allowed for understanding of the needs of people with disabilities (Darcy, 2010).
Yau et al., (2004) asserts that tourism for people with disabilities doe not only look at
removing the physical barriers but ensure quality through the provision of meaningful
experiences. Social perceptions about people with disabilities has changed rapidly around the
world cause of the contribution that has been given to ensuring that change by researchers.
The studies indicated that people with disabilities are also concerned with tourism facilities
knowing the needs that they require this is a gap that the tour guiding industry has that this
research is seeking to fill.

People with disabilities are a social class which requires exploration in relations to their
interests in travelling and their attitudes towards the involvement levels that they have in the
tourism activities. Most of the scholarly studies attempt to generalise the perspectives of
people with disabilities and look at them as market group with low differentiation and little
distinct needs. However, as previously mentioned, the group of people with disabilities that
require accessibility inorder to participate in tourism activities include those with physical
impairments such as mobility and manual dexterity conditioned and / or wheelchair users,
sensory, learning and mental impairments. Furthermore these impairments create sub-
segments of their own which creates a distinction of the needs and requirements of each of
the various sub-segments. In addition, even people with the same disability may not have the
same level of functioning. Burns, Paterson and Watson (2009) point out that people with
disabilities are quite diverse group in terms of experiences, views and needs and nature of the
disability. People with specific impairments may encounter specific barriers. As a result, it is

20 | P a g e
necessary to identifying different customers’ needs and provides more detailed information
about accessible facilities. The tour guiding industry has not been able to take this
differentiation as it still assumes that tourists with disabilities all require the same needs.

According to Cavinato and Cuckovich (2002), as essential need for people with disabilities is
the availability and reliability of information about the tourists’ attractions. The lack of
reliable information is one of the major causes that prevent disabled people from traveling
(Darcy 1998; Stumbo & Pegg 2005). In a study by NOP (2003), participants stated that
credibility needs to be established through a three stage process to fulfil their travel needs.
First, standards have to be set by respected disability organizations. Second, the assessment
of facilities against these criteria ought to be conducted by an independent authoritative body
and third, the subsequent information dissemination has to include clear descriptions on the
criteria that lead to accreditation (NOP 2003). Most tour guiding facilities do not apply for
this accreditation as they are not even aware of it.

2.8 Challenges faced by Tour Guides

The professional status and issues faced by tour guides have had very little studies that have
been reported in the English-based literature (Holloway, 1981; Ap & Wong, 2001). Zhang
and Chow (2004) have also reported that there have been very few research studies on tour
guides which has been done by authors such as Almagor (1985); Cohen (1985) and Fine and
Speer, (1985). However, there have been comments and observations by a few researchers
but not exactly while studying challenges faced by tour guides. This on its own becomes a
challenge for the tour guiding industry as they do face challenges in their duties. Furthermore
the tour guides serve people with disabilities in their industry and the challenges that they
encounter whilst they do have not been investigated which is what this study seeks to do.

Chowdhary and Prakash (2010) undertook a study of the challenges that were faced by tour
guides in India. They identified five broad categories of challenges that the tour guides
presumably faced. These included general tourism environment; working conditions of tour
guides; their relationships with local authorities; their relationship with trade intermediaries;
and problems in handling tourists/ customers. Their study did not include people with
disabilities as part of the sample and whether these broad categories of challenges also
applied in the case of people with disabilities. Unethical industry practices posed some risks
to the profession of tour guiding as well (Chowdhary & Prakash, 2010).

21 | P a g e
Tour guides have the responsibility of addressing multiple stake holders simultaneously. An
enjoyable visit, rewarding experience and health and safety issues are the concerns of the
visitors which they require the tour guides to make a priority. Some of the visitors may have
special needs and expectations associated with their particular cultural background, their
physical and intellectual capabilities, and their passions and interests in particular subject
matters (Weiler & Ham, 2002). At the same time employers expect the guide to provide high-
quality service to visitors in order to meet these expectations, as well as to manage the group,
the itinerary and other logistical aspects of the experience to maximise not only visitor
satisfaction but also profit margins (Cohen, 1985: Pond, 1993). These becomes a challenge
to the tour guides to satisfy all stakeholders especially in the case where the visitors have
special requirements as mentioned before.

Challenges faced by tour guides can come from both within and outside of their areas of
operation or their operating context. The internal challenges that they may face are personal
limitations of skills and competences inadequacy challenges. Externally, they must also
subscribe to rules and regulations of their areas of operations, their employers and their
clients. The guides are often pressed for time, caught between their obligation to please their
employers and the tourists, and subject to government regulations (Dahles, 2002). The tour
guides face a lot of incompetence and skills in serving the market of the tourists with the
disabilities. This study then aims to show the skills required to save the tourists with
disabilities.

Summarising their study on tour guiding in Hong Kong, Ap and Wong (2001), identified that
levels of professionalism in terms of recognition image building were affected there was no
training course for new entrants and there was a lack of training opportunities for existing
tour guides. Other challenges that they discovered included potential problems which resulted
from unhealthy industry practices; need for a certification, registration or licensing system;
absence of any monitoring of tour guide performance; and more active and visible role to be
taken by the local tour guiding association. They also identified that professionalism was
deducting because of lack of knowledge and communication skills. Their study did not
related any of these challenges to guiding tourists with disabilities.

Another challenge that tour guides face is the management of tourist experience due to
shortage or unavailability of required facilities to support tourist experience (Robotic, 2010).
Most of the tour guiding facilities face equipment challenges especially for people with

22 | P a g e
disabilities in their service provision. Tour guides then face challenges in service delivery
because of this barrier.

Tour guides complain that they do not get constructive criticism from tourists to enable them
change if need be in order to satisfy visitors. The challenge to get comments come in because
there is no system put forward for tourists to channel their grievances and obviously due to
lack of time by tourists to route complaints. The unavailability of such a channel gives
guides no opportunity to improve if they were underperforming. However some literature
points out that during interactions between guests and tourists, feedback is given and this
includes criticisms and appreciation of the role played by tour guides (Baum et al., 2007).
Not getting feedback or criticism on the other hand could mean that the services offered were
rightly delivered. This challenge is highly experienced in the case of people with disabilities
as the feedback form them is very limited.

Disability access have been the subject of a great deal of government regulations and
coordination through building codes, awareness training and state-based tourism marketing
authorities and policy engagement. Yet the supply-side perspective of industry responses to
this consumer group has been under researched (Darcy & Pegg, 2011). This led to the study
that was done in Northern Australia which aimed to redress this omission through examining
the attitudes and experiences of tourism operators towards people with disabilities the results
of the study showed that, while the macro policy environment is conducive to having an
accessible built environment, transport and service sector, the level of engagement by the
tourism industry still involves an ad hoc process of trial and error on the part of individual
operators. The experiences of the majority of participating tourism operators testified that
there were still weak demand from the accessible tourism market and a lack of awareness of
existing product offerings. There was the challenge of accordingly defining target groups so
as to embrace various segments with similar needs, such as people with disabilities, seniors
and families with push chairs and prams.

2.9 Implications of the Literature Review

While tour guides have existed practically as long as there has been travel, tour guiding has
received relatively little attention in the tourism literature (Ap & Wong, 2001), and there is a
dearth of theoretical literature in this field. However, a number of authors including Cohen
(1985), Geva and Goldman (1991), Pond (1993), Weiler and Ham (2001), and Ham and
Weiler (2002), have elucidated the important roles that tour guides can play in tourists’

23 | P a g e
experience. However there is a gap in literature that shows the voice of the tour guides
enlightening on the experiences that they go through specifically with tourists with
disabilities. The main aim of this research therefore was to be the voice of the tour guide and
elaborate that besides the researches that have been done to create good experience for the
demand side it is necessary to investigate the experiences that tour guides have when catering
for the tourists with disabilities.

Due to the fact that research on mobility-tourists with disabilities is at an early stage, the
purpose of this study is to contribute to a prosperous future for this research area by means of
identifying research themes of relevance, that is themes that transcend the accessibility issue
and hence enlighten the experiences that tour guides undergo when serving the market of
people with disabilities and thus deliver same service as given to the able bodied tourist. In
order to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of tour guides experiences with
tourists’ with disabilities feelings and thoughts on tourism, this research draws focus on the
feelings and thoughts of the tour guides in the tourism industry.

On the aspect of the aspect of the various disabilities that the literature review managed to
highlight, it has pointed the need of doing this research as the researcher would want to
examine the conveniences and sufficiency of existing infrastructure in tour guiding facilities
to cater for this market and enhance the experience of the tour guides.

2.10 Chapter summary

The chapter has been able to give an insight of the origins and make up of tour guiding as
shown by Cohens (1985) models. These models have been modified to still apply up to date.
Due to the differences in roles that the tour guides can perform the chapter highlighted the
various types of tour guides that are found in the industry giving also the activities, skills and
roles that they perform in their different settings. The travel patterns of the tourists with
disabilities have been seen to have a positive escalation however their needs and concerns are
still being inadequately met by the industry. An understanding of what disability is was given
indicating on the forms that exist in today’s society however the chapter also highlighted that
despite the existence of these disabilities the desire and need for travel, embarking in tourism
activities and taking tours is an existent factor that this segment also desires and evidently is
becoming a growing market. However the tour guiding industry on its own still seems to be

24 | P a g e
facing challenges in the provision of tour guides to tourists with disabilities. In this
chapterthere has been an overview of the tour guiding industry and what scholars confine it to
be as well as an overview of people with disabilities. Chapter 3 of the research will look at
the research methodology.

25 | P a g e
 CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

The main focus of this chapter is to outline the research methodology used by highlighting
the data collection procedure that was employed by the research in investigating and
gathering data. The adapted research design is explained, and the sampling methods used are
given. Sources of data are also highlighted in this chapter. More so the instruments used for
collecting data and data analysis are described in this chapter. The chapter also indicates the
advantages and disadvantages of using various data collection methods and the chapter
summary is also given.

3.2 Research design

A research design is a general plan of action that will give direction to the research enabling
it to be conducted in a systematic manner. It is plan that guides the researcher in data
collection, analysis and interpretations. According to Cooper, (2003) research design is a
plan, structure and strategy of investigating so as to answer to research questions or problems.
The research employed descriptive research design which would allow the investigation of
the profile of tour guiding experiences with tourists with disabilities. This research design
was adopted for this study as it obtained complete and accurate description of the tourists’
experiences with tourist with disabilities. This research design enabled the researcher to
answer the research questions and attain its objective. The descriptive research design was
conducted at Bally Vaughn Game Park in Shamva, Harare, Antelope Park in and the Military
museum in Gweru. These two sites were of relevance to the study as they both had a reach of
the tourists with disabilities and had been functional tour guiding facilities for years.

The researcher also used qualitative research in the course of the study. It aimed to develop
an understanding of the context in which phenomena and behaviours of the tourists with
disabilities had an impact on tour guides experiences. It focused mainly on experiences and
emotions and as it is designed to be probing in nature, thus encouraged informants to
introduce concepts of importance from their perspective, rather than adhering to areas that
have been pre-determined by the researcher. Qualitative research offered an in-depth
representation of the tour guides experiences and afforded the researcher with an insight of
exploration of the experiences faced when serving tourists with disabilities. Qualitative

26 | P a g e
techniques were more suitable and appropriate in examining the underlying issues that are the
challenges that are encountered when guiding the tourists with disabilities.

3.3 Sampling strategy

This shows the study population that the research was focused on and why this population
was chosen. It also gives details of sampling designs that were used their relevance to the
study as well as the advantages and disadvantages of the sampling designs.

3.3.1 Study population

A study population refers to a collection of unbiased, well-defined target or subset of

respondents or objects from which a research sample is selected. The study population for
this study was Bally Vaughn tour guides, Antelope park tour guides and Gweru military
museum tour guides as they reflected an in-depth understanding of the experiences that were
faced in guiding tourists with disabilities in the tour guiding industry. The study population
was highly vital for the researcher to come up with a balanced sample and validity in the
findings of the study.

Table 3.1 Sample population

Population Sample Sample technique

Tour guides 30 20 Convenience and Judgemental technique

Source: primary data

3.3.2 Sampling design

Sampling is the process by which a researcher selects a representative subset or part of the
total population that can be studied for the research so that they will be able to draw
conclusions regarding the entire population. Conclusions and generalisations made are only
as good as the sample they are based on (Robson, 2002). Samples have the advantage that the
smaller the number of people to be studied make the research more manageable and
potentially more accurate as there may be very little diversity in the responses. Sampling
designs can be classified into probability and non-probability sampling.

The researcher made use of non-probability sampling in this study. Non- probability
sampling is defined as sampling where it is not possible to specify the probability that any
person or other unit on which the survey is based will be included in the sample (Saunders et

27 | P a g e
al., 2003). It allows researchers to select samples purposively and it removes the chances of
the information being invalid. The researcher is not so much interested in working out what
proportion of the population gives a particular response but rather in exploring the idea of the
range of responses on ideas that people have. Thus non-probability sampling was chosen as it
was the most appropriate sampling design to bring out the experiences that tour guides had
with tourists with disabilities.

The researcher therefore used judgemental sampling in selecting the study population.
Judgemental sampling which can also be called purposive or expert sampling is a sampling
technic where participants are handpicked from the accessible population. It is an appropriate
sampling technic for the study as it selects a sample from the rest in terms of appropriateness
or relevance to the study, either because of knowledge or experience. This sampling
technique was chosen to select senior tour guides as their position gave them the interaction
with the tourists with disabilities and thus would have the necessary information to answer
the research questions. Judgemental sampling was also used in selecting only those tour
guides that had experiences with touring with tourists with disabilities, those that did not have
that experience were not part of the study population.

Also the researcher made use of convenience sampling which refers to when participants are
selected according to their convenient accessibility. The tour guide samples were also
selected because of the convenience, accessibility and proximity to the researcher. According
to Kalofu et al (2007) convenient location and proximity to the researcher are the
consideration made when selecting the elements for the sample. This study technique was
used to select Gweru Military museum as it was within reach to the researcher as well as
Antelope Park and Bally Vaughn Game Park as it was accessible during the time the study
was conducted.

3.4 Data collection

These are the data sources that the researcher used in collecting the data. The researcher used
both primary and secondary data to gather content for the research. These two were used so
as to gather as much information as possible to answer the research questions and to attain the
research objectives.

3.4.1 Primary data

28 | P a g e
The scholar used primary data in the course of the research. The primary data was obtained
through face to face interviews with the targeted population. The purpose of collecting
primary data was that it possessed authenticity since it was first-hand information, up to date
and collected from a primary source in tour guiding industry. Primary data permitted the
researcher to get first hand evidence providing in-depth analysis, high accuracy and reliability
in answering the research question.

3.4.2 Secondary data

The researcher also used secondary data and made use of textbooks and e-journals for the
purpose of attaining information which related to tour guides experiences with tourists with
disabilities. Secondary data can be defined as data that is accessible, previously collected,
analysed and scrutinized by other scholars. The justification for using secondary data was that
it proved to be reliable, well accepted for its efficiency in time utilization and cheaper in
terms of financial requirement to access the information. However the secondary data did not
cover the required information by the study, which was the experiences of tour guides with
tourists with disabilities.

3.5 Research instruments

The research instrument that the researcher used was face to face interviews that were
conducted with the tour guides of the study population. It also made use of focus groups so
that the tour guides could build on each other’s responses giving them further meaning,
validity and clarification.

3.5.1 Face to Face Interviews

Interviews are a systematic collection of data through asking questions, then carefully
listening to and recording or noting down the responses concerning the research topic. The
data collection technique provided access to a range of experiences, situations and knowledge
and provided opportunity to explore issues that tour guides faced when guiding tourists with
disabilities. The interview allowed the informant to describe private or sensitive behaviours
that happened when tour guiding with tourists with disabilities. Interviews provided
information for the meanings and definitions that the tour guides gave to events and
behaviours that they encountered during their guides with the tourists with special needs or
requirements. This was useful in understanding how things are done in different contexts,
gave room for clarification in questions and answers. The researcher was guided by a list of

29 | P a g e
main themes called probes so that the interviews would not solicit unnecessary data or go off
topic.

The researcher made use of semi-structured interviews inorder to collect information from the
tour guides. Semi-structured interviews stroked the balance between a broad investigation,
through using unstructured interviews on one hand and using a very structured
explanatory/descriptive interview approach on the other. This interview technique was used
to find out what was happening, searched for new insights, identified general patterns and
understood the experiences that tour guides had when guiding tourists with disabilities. It
allowed the researcher to have a list of questions, and have greater freedom in terms of
sequencing questions and modifying them according to the flow of the conversation. Some
questions were open ended, with some having probes that allowed deeper investigation of the
topic. According to Robson (1993), interviews are capable of exposing non-verbal cues thus
helping to get a deeper understanding and reading of the verbal responses which may give a
different understanding to the common responses and giving added meaning. The researcher
was able to read those non-verbal cues from the interviews and drew conclusions from them.

Challenges of rescheduled appointments in the case of the interviews were encountered as

some tour guides needed to attend to business issues like meetings and their guiding duties
hence the researcher changed that by shifting their appointment to times and dates that
avoided disruption of their daily operations. Some respondents were not open to disclose
information due to confidentiality and sensitivity of information pertaining to tourist figures,
their own views of the organisation, whilst others did not have any interest or were not
willing to be interviewed. This had an effect of reducing the study population but did not
affect the validity of the information from those that did participate.

3.5.2 Focus groups

The researcher also made use of focus groups to conduct the face to face interviews with the
tour guides. These consisted of 4 -6 tour guides for group depth interviews among the tour
guides. It took advantage of the interaction between the tour guides, allowing the respondents
to build on what others would have said thus generated more insightful information and
encouraged the respondents to give more candid answers. However the focus groups had
some tour guides that dominated the interview making others feel unease and not contributing
much. Also the data was heavily dependent upon the structure and directedness of the session
as conducted by the researcher.

30 | P a g e
3.6 Data analysis

Content analysis was used in analysing the data from the researcher’s interviews. Content
analysis is when the researcher identified in text the existence and frequency of concepts,
whether in simple words or phrases (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005). Content analysis was a
valuable analysis method in identifying important themes or categories within the
information gathered from the data sources. It provided a rich description of the social reality
of the experiences that the tour guides had with tourists with disabilities. In order to identify
the occurrence of terms related to the concept, even if it appeared implicitly semi structured
interviews were analysed using content analysis technique. Content analysis allowed for the
systematic coding and categorizing approach to explore the large amounts of textual
information from the interviews to determine trends and patterns of words used, their
frequency, their relationship and the structures and discourses of communication (Mayring,
2000; Pope et al., 2006; Gbrich, 2007).

The researcher also made use of thematic analysis of the data collected. Thematic analysis is
mainly described as a method for identifying, analysing, and reporting patterns within data
(Braun & Clarke, 2006). This analysis technique was suitable for analysing data from the
interviews conducted with the tour guides. It organised and described the data in the research
and discovered an account of the emerging themes as they were necessary to account for the
process of analysis. It had the advantage that themes captured the essence of the data in
relation to the research questions and objectives as it offered an accessible and thematically
flexible approach to analysing the qualitative data.

Moreover the researcher made use ofCreswell’s six steps of data analysis. These steps helped
on the procedure of analysis and interpretation of the data that was collected. The steps
helped to give a continual reflection, analysis and adjustment of the research data as well as
making sense out of the data recorded. Creswell’s steps gave the researcher a guideline on
data analysis:

1. The researcher organised and prepared the data from the interviews for analysis.
2. Read through the datathat was gathered from the interviews.
3. Gained a general sense of the information and reflected on the overall meaning.
4. Analysis was conducted basing on the other data analysis strategies that were chosen
(content and thematic analysis).

31 | P a g e
 5. The researcher then generated a description of the setting and identified themes and
their connection from the coding.
6. Lastly the researcher represented the data in the research and interpreted the larger
meaning of the tour guides experiences with tourists with disabilities (Creswell,
2009).

These analysis techniques allowed the researcher to identify the major themes in the study,
minimally organize and described the data researched and captured the essence of the data in
relation to the topic whilst representing a pattern of the data. The data collected was then
edited and checked for any possible errors. The research was also checked for eligibility,
consistency, validity and reliability to ensure that it answered the research questions while
addressing the research objectives.

3.7 Chapter Summary

This chapter gave an insight into the research methodology used in the study by the
researcher to examine the problem. The sampling techniques that the researcher employed
were also discussed highlighting their relevance to the study. The researcher also provided
justification for the use of the non- probability sampling techniques that was used. Primary
and secondary sources of data collection were stated in the chapter, highlighting their
relevance and usefulness to the study. The challenges of using those research instruments
were also mentioned in the chapter and the remedies that were taken by the researcher to
eliminate those challenges. The data presentation and analysis plans were described
highlighting their relevance to the study. The next chapter will present and analyse the
findings from the field research.

32 | P a g e
 CHAPTER FOUR

DATA ANALYSIS, PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSSION

4.1 Introduction

This chapter focuses on the data presentation, analysis and discussion of the data collected for
the research. The data is presented through the use of tables, pie charts and graphs in the
chapter. This chapter also uses Creswell’s six steps of data analysis making use of thematic
and content analysis techniques. Content analysis was used to analyse the information that
was received from the respondents whilst thematic analysis was used to analyse data and
themes that were interlinked to the research topic and its objectives.

4.2 Response rate

Table 4.1 Interviews response rate

Respondents Targeted respondents Respondents interviewed Response Rate

Tour guides 30 20 67%

Source: Primary data

The 67% response rate may be attributed to the issue that most of the tour guides to the
facilities visited could not make out time to be interviewed as they had tourists to attend to
and guides scheduled for them to do. Interviews were conducted with tour guides of the
Gweru Military museum, Antelope Park and Mwanga lodge and Bally Vaughn Game Park.
Their participations intensely highlighted on the experiences that the tour guides had whilst
guiding tourists with disabilities. According to Cochran (2010) a response rate of over 55% is
a factual depiction of the target population sample and can be used irrefutably for a study.

4.3 Demographic profile of respondents

The interviews had targeted to interview 30 respondents from the tour guiding field or
industry but only managed to get information from 20 interviewees. This was due to the

33 | P a g e
reason that most of the tour guides at the facilities visited were busy guiding tourist and could
not make out time to be interviewed by the researcher. The interviews conducted by the
researcher consisted of both male and female respondents. The respondents were categorised
into age groups that were ranging from 18-25 years, 26-33 years, 34-42 years and 43 and
above years. This helped the researcher in determining the level of experience that the
respondents had in the field of tour guiding and thus reach a consensus on the maturity or
information they would have acquired during the course of their work. Most of the
respondents ranged from 18- 25 years (40%) and 26-33 years (50%). These demographic
implied that the study had both the information from new tour guides which gave current
experiences and that of much more qualified tour guides that had managed to identify trends
of tourists with disabilities. The demographics are also in this order as the tour guiding
facilities require guides that have more experience in the field when hiring.

Table 4.2Age distribution of respondents

Age range Number from respondents Percentage

18-25 years 8 40%
26-33 years 10 50%
34-42 years 1 5%
43 years and above 1 5%

Table showing the age distribution of tour guides at the tour guiding facilities.

Source: Primary data

4.4 Findings

From the data gathered by the researcher the type of tour guides that are there in the industry
are mainly heritage and culture (occupying 35%) for the museum industry of tour guiding.
This confirms the notion that that was made by Poria et al., (2009) of museums being high
representatives of the tour guiding industry. The game parks industry of tour guiding mainly
offered nature and wilderness guides to the market of tourists with disabilities, which had
30% and 25% respectively. Also from the data elicited from the research it pointed out that
not much of adventure guides are present for the tourists with disabilities in the tour guiding
industry as this had the least percentage of 10%. This was attributed to the fact that accessible
activities that the adventure guides could offer to the tourists with disabilities in the tour

34 | P a g e
guiding industry were very limited despite having a range of adventure activities available in
the industry for example, cannoning; jet skiing elephant riding and horse swimming. The
types of tour guides that the research discovered were in agreement with the categories that
were identified by Pond (1993) and Black and Weiler (2005) in the literature review.

Table 4.3 Tour guide types from available respondents

Tour guide types Number from respondents Percentage

Heritage and Culture guides 7 35%
Adventure guides 2 10%
Wilderness guides 6 30%
Nature guides 5 25%

Table indicating the types of tour guides that are found in the industry.

Source: Primary data

4.4.1 Types of disabilities that the facilities mainly receive

The researcher elicited information pertaining to disabilities that the tour guides had
experienced in their field of tour guiding. The results from the interviews highlighted that
mainly those with physical disabilities were the ones that the guides had encounters with.
They constituted 55% and were amongst the ones to be referred to as those that took part in
most of the tour guiding activities as they had a limited restriction as compared to others.
Being on wheel chairs, using crutches, limping legs, physical deforms and having one arm or
leg were the main disabilities that were mentioned by the tour guides as the disabilities that
most tourists with physical disabilities had. Both the game parks and the museum tour guides
had more tours with tourists that are physically disabled as compared to the rest of the classes
of disability. This was seen to be so as these tourists usually had a wider range of activities to
take part in at the facilities as compared to others thus obtaining the higher percentage. This
disability confirmed the findings that were made by Daniels, Rodgers, and Wiggins, (2005)
that indicated the types of disabilities that were found in today’s society.

The other disabilities that the tour guides had encountered which also agree with the above
mentioned authors when guiding with tourists with disabilities in order of their presence in
the tourists were deaf and dumb tourists (20%), blind tourists (15%) and mentally disabled
tourists (10%). The findings indicated that the museum never had any tourists that had visual

35 | P a g e
impairments as all the services that it offered did not cater for this market segment. This
further supported Richards et al., (2010) findings of lack of awareness with regards to the
needs of tourists that have visual impairment. The deaf and dumb tourists are another market
that the museum did not cater for because of the communication barrier that the tour guides
experience thus reducing the name of tourists with this disability that visit the facility. This
again highlights the importance of communication competency that was highlighted by Goh,
(2008:10) and Carbone (2006). This also indicated the failure of tour guides in performing
their function of culture broking which expects them to be good communicators and
interpreters across various cultures (Gentemann & Whitehead, 1983).

The game parks had a variety of tourists of the tourists with the above mentioned disabilities
visiting the tourism sights. However the mentioned disabilities faced issues of safety in the
tour guiding industry thus limited the activities that they could also take part in at the
facilities. As stated by Weiler and Ham, (2002) safety is a concern that tour guides will have
towards their guests and will restrict the activities that they can take part in.

Figure 4.1 Interviewees disability encounter responses

percentage represenation of respondents

encounters
physical diability intellectual disability visual impairment
mental disability hearing impairment

10% 15%

15% 55%
5%

Figure indicating the percentage rate of the disabilities encountered in the tour guiding
industry. Despite having situations were tour guides had encounters with tourists with various
disabilities the above figure only indicates the disability they encountered the most.

Source: Primary data

36 | P a g e
As people with different impairments have different information requirements, customer-
oriented services and tailor-made information represent a crucial part for the fulfilment of
individual needs, which the museums and game parks at present fail to provide. Currently,
there is a clear bias towards considering the needs of mobility impaired people. The game
parks and museums provide information for persons using a wheelchair or mobility aids
about their facility and what activity they can take part in. Visually impaired persons and deaf
or hard of hearing citizens are only partly covered by the tour guiding facilities that the
researcher managed to visit. Information for people with hidden disabilities such as asthma,
allergies or intellectually impaired individuals is missing and does not have any of the
facilities catering for the needs of these tourists during tours. As asserted by Burns, Paterson
and Watson (2009) people with disabilities are quite diverse group in terms of experiences,
views and needs and nature of the disability and the findings of this study managed to
highlight the conclusions of their study.

4.4.2 Facilities and activities offered by the Military Museum.

The findings from the research showed that the museum offered guided tours or walks to the
tourists with disabilities. During the tours the tourist were allowed to read through the
templates of some of the artefacts that were found in the museum, felt some of the exhibits
that were not in sealed consignments and watched a video after the tour was over. However
the findings showed that these are activities that mainly tourists with physical disabilities
only could take part in at the museum. The museum was not able to cater for the tourists that
were blind as there were no brails at the museums that would allow them to read through the
artefacts that were at the museum and also know their heritage and culture. This highlighted
the findings of Sparrow and Mayne (1990) which indicated the limited access to facilities in
the tourism industry.

In order to bridge the gap between the message and the visual input and to present the visited
site as it once was, the guides employed not only models exhibited in the gallery, but also
some useful “props” such as plans, drawings or other illustrations showing the scientifically
proved or presumed original appearance of the main monuments. They also made use of
videos that they played for the tourist so as to know the history of the artefacts that they
would have seen in the museum.All these could only cater for the tourists with physical
disability and other disabilities had no measures or methods that were put in place to cater for
them as well.

37 | P a g e
4.4.3 Activities offered by the Game Park

The game parks offered a host of activities that included canoeing, boat cruises, bird
watching game hunting, horse and elephant riding and lion walks among many other
activities. These activities became very limited when guiding tourists with disabilities. The
tourists could then only take part in bird watching (15%), game drives and viewing (30%),
photographic safaris (10%) and lion enclosure tours (10%) as stated by the guides that toured
with them. The game park activities that tourists with disabilities were offeredwere
monotonous as they were the same and were given as the only activities that the game parks
could provide at both Antelope Park and Bally Vaughn Game Park.This showed that tourists
with disabilities had a limited variety of choice as they could only experience the same things
or activities but only in a different setting, no new activity could be given or offered to them.

Figure 4.2 Activities that tourist with disabilities are offered

activities that PwDs take

35%
35.00%
30.00%
30.00%

25.00%

20.00%
15.00%
15.00%
10.00% 10.00%
10.00%

5.00%

0.00%
GAME DRIVES BIRD WATCHING WALKS THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHIC LION ENCLOSURE
AND VIEWING THE FACILITY SAFARI TOURS

activity selection percentage

Source: Primary data

The figure shows the activities that the tourism facilities offer to tourists with disabilities. The
above mentioned percentages which are also stated in the figure indicate the rate at which
tourists with disabilities partake in the activities that are offered to them.

38 | P a g e
4.4.4 Activities that tourist with disabilities choose

The findings of the study indicated that the tourists had a very small variety of choice from
the activities they chose during the guided tours. The tourists that visited the game parks
mainly chose game viewing and game drives from list of activities were on offer. This
converges with Wilhite and Keller (1992) when they indicated that serving tourists with
disabilities usually had constraints of offering very limited facilities at a tourism site.

The table shows the preferred activities by tourists with disabilities at the tourists’ sites.
These preferences are made from the activities that are on offer at the facilities that were
previously mentioned above. The table also gives the percentage representation of the
preference rate. The number of respondents per activity is given out the total number of tour
guide respondents (20).

Table 4.5 Preferred activities by tourists with disabilities

Activity Number of respondents Percentage representation

Game drives and 9 45%
game viewing
Walks through the 7 35%
facility
Bird watching and 4 20%
photography

Source: Primary data

4.4.5 Concerns of people with disabilities

The findings from the research indicated that the major concern of the tourist with disabilities
was lack of activities (35%) to take part in at the facilities. The tour guiding facilities had
high restrictions or barrier in what they offered to the tourists with disabilities. The study
Sparrow and Mayne (1990) also highlighted that people with disabilities were concerned with
lack of activities in the tourism industry for them. This then removed the zeal or excitement
that the tourists with disabilities could experience thus making the tour guide to under deliver
and provide services that were below the expectations of the tourists. The wow element of the
tour would be completely eluded due to the lack of activities that were offered.

39 | P a g e
Another major concern that the research obtained was that of non-user friendly equipment
(30%), as stated by the guides that were given feedback by tourist with disabilities. These
facilities had equipment that was of easy access for the able bodied only giving much
attention to accessibility concerns of the tourists with disabilities. The vehicles used for the
game drives had side ladders that would require one to climb on their own. The research
conducted by Sparrow and Mayne (1990) also highlighted that transportation was a concern
that tourists with disabilities had. The vehicle design then required the tour guide at the game
parks to give assistance whether through a shove, push or carrying the tourist with disabilities
to enter the vehicle. This was one of the major dislikes of the tourists with disabilities, being
seen as if they were helpless in even the simple things. The nature guide at Bally Vaughn
Game Park stated that:

‘People with disabilities do not enjoy being regarded as helpless and being assisted with
every little thing even those which they could have been capable of doing on their own, they
want to be independent self-reliant people’.

The vehicles also had cramped space such that those with wheelchairs and crutches could not
bring their aids along with them for the game drives such that when the other tourists left the
vehicle for walks or for a closer look at the animals the disabled tourists were left to sit in the
vehicle and not take part in what the other tourists would be doing. Lovelock (2010) also
highlighted the issue of mobility problems in transportation for the tourists with disabilities.

Furthermore the research found out that tourist with disabilities were also concerned about
inaccessible resources that were found at the tour guiding facilities. It was not that the game
parks and the museums did not have activities or resources that would be able to wow the
tourists but the resources and activities would just be inaccessible to the tourists with
disabilities. The museums were filled with artefacts and exhibits but because they did not
have any other means of information dissemination except through the interpretation of the
tour guide those with visual or hearing impairment could not use their senses so as to better
understand what they were experiencing during the tour. Regardless of all the activities and
resources that the game parks had the tourists with disabilities could not access all of them.
This finding is supported by the literature of Darcy (2010) and Yau et al., (2004) which
stated that accessibility barriers were concerns of the tourists with disabilities and were
considered as one of the major determinant that affects the travel of the tourists. The above
information was represented in the graph that follows:

40 | P a g e
Figure 4.2 Tourists with disabilities concerns according to feedback given by guides

Concerns of tourists with disabilities

35.00%
30.00%
25.00%

10.00%

LACK OF ACTIVITIES INAPPROPRIATE NON USER FRIENDLY INACCESSIBLE RESOURCES

LANGUAGE EQUIPMENT

percentage level as per respondents

Source: Primary data

4.3.6 Challenges faced by tour guides when guiding tourists with disabilities

The challenges that tour guides faced when guiding tourists with disabilities were mainly
about time management, language selection, equipment barrier and environment barrier.
Robotic, (2010) asserted that equipment barrier was a challenge that tour guides experienced
when guiding tourists with disabilities. Equipment barrier had the highest respond rate of
45%, which indicates that the equipment used in the industry is inadequate. This had the
highest percentage as the equipment that the tour guiding facilities had were not tailor made
for use by tourists with disabilities. This made it hard for the delivery of service during the
tour as the tour guide will not have user friendly equipment that makes access easy for the
tourists with disabilities.

Environment barrier is another challenge that tour guides faced when guiding tourists with
disabilities. This had a percentage of 25% as from the responses gathered form the tour
guides. The tour guiding industry had environment barriers to tourists with disabilities as they
could not have free movement around the facilities but required special pavements or
pathways around the facility which ruined the authenticity of the environment making it too
artificial and not being the natural nature it was. Chowdhary and Prakash (2010) undertook a

41 | P a g e
study that concluded that some environment settings were a barrier to guiding with tourists
with disabilities.

The guides were forced to only resort to activities they saw to be safe for the tourists, such
that in the worst situation that could possibly happen protecting the tourists with disabilities
would not be too hard to do. This put pressure on the tour guide as the tour would be heavily
reliant on what they chose for the tourists with disabilities risking not complying with what
the tourists want. Game parks tour guides were not done in one confined area but would
require long walks or drives to the sites that the tourists would be able to see the game.

Language selection was the least challenge that tour guides had from their experiences with
the disabled tourists. Communication, interpretation and dissemination information was a
challenge that the guides faced when guiding tourists with disabilities such as visual and
hearing impairment. According to guides at Gweru Military Museum,

‘It is not that the museum does not wish to fully accommodate this market segment but the
tour guides available do not have the necessary skill and expertise required to serve the
tourists with these disabilities. It will be hard putting across the information about the
artefacts in the museum as sign language is a skill that none of the tour guides have. During
videos as well it is very difficult to be telling the story of the video so the guides rely heavily
on the tourists having to make their own understandings from what they will be seeing ’

These guides views elaborate on the findings of Wang et al., (2002) which reported that tour
guides’ presentation skills could make or break a tour as their interpretive work played a vital
role in the visitors experience and through having such skills can transform tours into
experiences.

The deaf and dumb tourists had no means of understanding what the tour guides would be
saying as none of them knew sign language so as to effectively communicate what they
would be saying to the tourists with hearing impairment, again failing to perform the role of
culture broking, (Michie, 2004). Thus when the tourist with this disability visited the tour
guides let them have their own walks and they would rely heavily on reading templates that
would be placed on the exhibits if they were literate. They also could not take part in the
video watching that was offered at the museum because the videos did not have subtitles for
them to read and understand what would be appearing on the video.

42 | P a g e
The table below highlights the percentages of the challenges that the tour guides experienced
when they guided tourists with disabilities.

Table 4.6 Interviewees challenges faced when guiding tourists with disability

Challenges Number of respondents Percentage representation

Time management 4 20%
Language selection 2 10%
Equipment barrier 9 45%
Environment barrier 5 25%

Source: Primary data

4.4.7 Positive and negative experience encountered when guiding tourists with
disabilities

The research brought out the experiences that tour guides had when guiding tourists with
disabilities. These were sub-divided into positive and negative experiences. According to the
findings of the study the respondent had both sided experiences at both the game parks and
the military museum.

Positive experiences

The research brought out the positive experiences that tour guides experienced when guiding
with tourists with disabilities. The findings elaborated on how the tourists with disabilities
were always eager to learn as compared to the average able bodied tourist. A tour guide at
Antelope Park made this assertion and explained that the tourists were not as hard to get
along with as the perceptions that people had of tourists with disabilities his view agreed with
Burns, Paterson and Watson (2009) who stated that the general assumption that tourists with
disabilities were given were different from how they actually were. One wilderness tour
guide at Antelope Park asserted that,

“I had a guide with a blind tourist and the first day I was told to take personalised tours with
her I could not imagine how that would be possible as she would never be able to see what I
would be showing her at the game park. Upon touring with her for a few hours struggling to
explain myself to her I realised how excited she was and eager to be given the description of
what lied in front of her. Touring with her became easier as we used the sense of hearing and

43 | P a g e
feeling for her to fully enjoy the tour. She enjoyed her tour and promised to return as she
appreciated that I allowed her to enjoy the tour through my eyes’

Other tour guides emphasised that the tourists with disabilities had the zeal, passion and
appreciation to the services that they were offered. Having a greater appreciation to life itself
the tourists with disabilities were more grateful for whatever service the tour guide managed
to deliver during the tour. Another positive experience gained by the tour guides when
touring with tourists with disabilities is that it taught them how to be sincerely patient with
the market segment.

The tourists with disabilities participated a lot more during tour guides through asking
questions, making suggestions and giving compliments through the tours. They expressed
their concerns as the tour was carried out which made it easier for correction so as to meet
their needs and did not wait for it to be a conflicting issue with management.

Negative experiences

The tour guides mainly had negative experiences when touring with tourists with disabilities
that were in groups or part of a tour group with able bodied tourists. According to one nature
tour guide at Bally Vaughn Game Park,

‘When guiding tourists with disabilities who are part of a group of able bodied tourists
shifting attention becomes a problem. The able bodied tourists may not like the fact that the
tourist with disability will be getting more attention from the guide as they all expect to get
their value from the money they would have paid for the tour. In other cases they may
complain of the tour being too slow as the pace of the guide will be to accommodate the
tourist with disabilities especially if they are guided walks through the facility/site. Even
some of the tourists with disabilities become too difficult to handle when they realise that they
are being treated differently from the rest of the guests as they do not want to be seen as
burden therefore prefer being tough’.

The tourism industry has the motto that the customer is king therefore what the king wants
the king must get. However the tour guides were faced with situations whereby they had to
deny some of the requests that were made by the tourists with disabilities with the consent of
their safety. This created situations whereby the tour guides would get negative feedback
from the tourists, risked losing return visits or had moods among the tourists that ruined the
guide. It also raised the issue of failing to deliver the appropriate service so as to wow the

44 | P a g e
guest during the tours. As stated earlier on in the chapter Weiler and Ham (2002) elaborated
on the issues of safety and on the part of feedback Baum et al., (2007) noted that tour guides
may fail to have constructive feedback or criticism. This may due to some of the decisions
they during the itinerary of the tour.

Another negative experience that tour guides had when touring with tourist with disabilities
was the issue of having to plan out the tour. As researched by Turco, Stumbo, and Garncarz
(1998) special planning is required for tourists with disabilities to take part in activities. From
the findings of this research these tourists would require the tour guides to have a well-
planned out itinerary for the tour which suited their needs. The planning for the tourists with
disabilities thus required more time. Lastly the tourists with aids that would be complicated
and disturbed the service delivery of the tour, for example, those that had complicated
wheelchairs, oxygen supply pumps or voice vibrators would create a negative experience as
they were difficult to give necessary comfort through the guide.

4.5 Chapter Summary

This chapter focused on data presentation, analysis and interpretation of all data from the
field research and discussed the results of the research. The research findings were mainly of
the experiences that the tour guides had when touring with tourists with disabilities. These
included the major disability that the tour guiding sector was capable of catering for, limited
activities that were offered to tourists with disabilities, environment and equipment barriers
that the guides faced during the tours. The study was also able to ascertain the challenges that
the tour guides faced whilst guidingand the concerns of the tourists with disabilities. Chapter
5 will conclusively give an overall view of the study, propose recommendations and draw
attention to areas of future research.

45 | P a g e
 CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Introduction

This chapter focuses on summarising, concluding and making recommendations to the study
based on the findings of the research which had aimed to answer the research questions and
achieve the objective of the study. The summary of this chapter gives an outline of the entire
research and the measures that were taken to reach the findings that it has. Conclusions are
drawn from the findings that the research has. Also recommendations to what can be done to
improve tour guides experiences when guiding with tourists with disabilities are provided in
the chapter as well as suggestions for further studies that can be conducted.

5.2 Summary

The research addressed and enumerated the experiences of tour guides with tourists with
disabilities. It was conducted with an elaborate reference to Gweru Military Museum,
Antelope Park and Bally Vaughn Game Park. The study population consisted of tour guides
who had experiences of guiding tourist with disabilities from these tour guiding tourism
facilities. The study aimed to establish the holidays that tour guides offered tourists with
disabilities, the concerns of the people with disabilities, challenges faced whilst guiding them
and recommendation for those challenges. Moreover the study was the driven by the study
gap of lack of information on the experiences that tour guides had when guiding tourists with
disabilities. The market of people with disabilities is rapidly growing but there is inadequate
information in the tour guiding sector on how to cater for them the same way able bodied
tourists are attended to in the sector.The study sought to add on literature of the experiences
that tour guides in Zimbabwe had when guiding tourists with disabilities. The research made
use of descriptive research approach where interviews and focus groups were used as
instruments for data collection to expand the information on the experiences that tour guides
had when touring with tourists with disabilities. It also made use of non-probability sampling
techniques for the selection of the study population, these were convenience and judgemental
sampling techniques. The analysis of data in the research was through Creswell’s six steps of
data analysis using also content and thematic analysis designs.

46 | P a g e
5.3 Achievement of research objectives

The first objective of the study was to establish the type of holidays that tour guides have had
with tourists with disabilities.

The research managed to elicit the types of holidays that the tour guides have had with
tourists with disabilities as it clearly stated the activities that the tourists with disabilities did
at the study sites of tour guiding. The research also managed to get information on the
activities that the tourists with disabilities did the most from those activities that were offered
by Bally Vaughn, Antelope Park and Gweru military museum.

The second objective was to explore the concerns that people with disabilities have reported
during tours.

The research succeeded in obtaining the concerns that people with disabilities had reported
during tours, being mainly lack of activities to take part in at the tour guiding facility, non-
user friendly equipment and an inaccessible environment. These three attributes seemed to be
their major concern during the guides they would take. There was very little for them to do
despite the game parks and museum having a variety of activities to do.

The third objective was to find out the challenges that tour guides have encountered when
taking people with disabilities on a tour.

The study managed to find out the challenges that tour guides have encountered when taking
people with disabilities on a tour. These included time management, language selection,
equipment barrier and environment barrier. The non- user friendly equipment was the major
challenge that the tour guides had as it hindered the service delivery.

The fourth objective was to provide a set of recommendation on the measures that can be
taken by the tour guiding industry to better accommodate the disabled tourist market

The research managed to source out recommendations on the measures that can be taken by
tour guiding industry to better accommodate the tourists with disability. These
recommendations will be highlighted later on in this chapter.

The study also managed to give improvements of the measures that were already being done
to try and cater for the disabled tourists at the tour guiding facilities. Again these will be
elaborated later in the chapter.

5.4 Conclusion

47 | P a g e
The following conclusions were drawn after careful and systematic consideration of the
research findings.

The main category of tourists that travelled were those with physical disabilities, which
meant the tour guiding industry failed to cater for a wider range of tourist with disabilities
that occupy the world. Physical disability is seen as an impairment that is easier to handle and
give options to many of the activities that the tour guiding facilities offer. However that is not
so, tourists with other disabilities are more than capable of taking part in tour guiding
activities as long as the tour guides know how best to serve them.

The main challenge that the tour guides experienced when touring with tourists with
disability was inadequacy in the equipment that they used to fully cater for the tourists with
disabilities during their guided tours. Most of the equipment was user friendly for those that
were able bodied only.

The tour guiding industry had a limited number of facilities that could cater for the tourists
with disabilities as they all considered it to be a very expensive market to cater for due to the
fact that they had lots of special requirements. The equipment and environmental changes
that the facilities would have to change would costs a lot for the tour guiding facilities inorder
to fully cater for the tourists with disabilities.

The concerns of the tourists with disabilities were the same throughout all facilities yet very
little had been done to see that a change had been implemented on the feedback that they
gave. For both the museum and the game parks the tourists with disabilities always reported
having lack of activities to take part in. Non-user friendly equipment and environmental
barriers were concerns at both of the tour guiding sites.

5.5 Recommendations

Tour guides still required training in the industry so as to be able to attend adequately to
tourists with disabilities during a tour. The training would enable them to still deliver
authentic services during their guides. Lack of knowledge would then be removed if the tour
guides were trained and equipped with information that were relevant to serving tourists with
disabilities. Tour guides should have training programmes that equip them with the necessary
knowledge on how to treat tourists with disabilities during a tour. These training sessions can
incorporate basic sign language, handle and care procedures of different disabilities,
appropriate communication skills and health concerns of the tourists with disabilities. This

48 | P a g e
recommendation was also stated as a requirement by Ap and Wong (2001), were they
asserted training was required to attain professionalism.

The environment at all facilities should be able to incorporate both the abled and disabled
tourists. Facilities should then make sure that for every area that they create access for the
able bodied at the guiding facilities same accesses is made for the disabled tourists. This
could be the restrooms, pavements, entrance and exits, rails in rooms that they use and easy
accessible pathways to all tour guiding areas. The cinema area for the museums where
tourists watch all historical films can be reconstructed to have more space so as to allow
everyone to fit and those with wheelchairs to have access into the room (Darcy, 2010 and
Yau et al.,2004).

The equipment that the tour guides use need to be user friendly and tailor made for
accessibility for the tourists with disabilities. For example the facilities can have brails that
will cater as information sources for tourists that have visual impairments. Sound booths,
textile exhibits and interpretations centres for the museums. The vehicles that the tour guides
use need to be accessible to the tourists with disabilities allowing them to board as easily as
the able bodied tourist can. Extra equipment should also be kept at the tour guiding facilities,
this includes wheelchairs, crutches, walking stick and portable ramps. The equipment for the
tourists with disabilities should just be as important to have as the medical kit that the facility
is required to have. Canoeing boats can be tailor made so as to allow for space, safety and use
by the tourists with disabilities (Robotic, 2010).

5.6 Suggestions for further research

This study took focus on the tour guiding experiences of tour guides in Zimbabwe. Further
studies can be done on an international level, looking at the developed and the developing
countries.

49 | P a g e
 REFERENCES

Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, (West 1993).

Ap, J., and Wong, K.F.K. (2001).Case study on tour guiding: professionalism, issues and
problems. Tourism Management, 22, 551-563.

Black, R., and Weiler, B. (2005). Quality assurance and regulatory mechanisms in tour
guiding industry: A systematic review. Journal of Tourism Studies, 16 (1), 24-37.

Blichfeldt, B.S., Sonnenschein, A., and Nicolaisen, J. (2011).Disabled travel: Not easy, but
doable. Current Issues in Tourism, 14(1), 79102. doi: 10.1080/13683500903370159.

Carbone, G. (2006). “Perspectives of the tourism industry on the elements affecting visitor
satisfaction in protected areas”. The International of Protected Area Managers, 16 (2), 53-
57.

China Disabled Persons’ Federation. (2013).Facts on people with disabilities in China.

Retrieved from http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—asia/—robangkok/—ilo-.
[Accessed 15 September 2015].

Chowdhary, N. and Prakash, M. (2010).Tour Guiding in India: A Case Study. European

Journal of Tourism and Research, 3(1), 67 – 84.

Cohen, E. (1985).“The tourist guide: the origins, structure and dynamics of a role”. Annals
of Tourism Research, 12 (1), 5-29.

Collins, D. andTisdell, C. (2002).'Gender and Differences in Travel Life Cycles'. Journal of

Travel Research, 41 (2), 133—143.

Cook, R.A., Yale, L.J., and Marqua, J.J. (2002). Tourism: The business of travel. (2nd ed).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Cooper, D.R. and Schindler, P.S. (2006). Business research methods.(9th ed). Boston,
Mass.: McGraw-Hill.

Crompton, J.L. (1979). Motivation for pleasure vacation. Annals of Tourism Research,
6(4),404–424.

Daniels, M.J., Rodgers, E.B.D., and Wiggins, B. (2005). ‘Travel tales’: An interpretive
analysis of constraints and negotiations to pleasure travel as experienced by persons with
physical disabilities. Tourism Management, 26(6), 919–930.
50 | P a g e
Darcy, S. (1998). Anxiety to access: Tourism patterns and experiences of disabled New
South Wales people with a physical disability. Sydney: Tourism New South Wales.

Darcy, S. (2002). Marginalised participation: Physical disability, high support needs and
tourism .Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 9(1), 61–72.

Darcy, S. (2004). Disabling journeys: The social relations of tourism for people with
impairments in Australia an analysis of government tourism authorities and
accommodation sector practices and discourses (Unpublished doctoral
dissertation).Sydney. Faculty of Business, University of Technology.

Darcy, S. (2006). Setting a research agenda for accessible tourism. Queensland. Sustainable
Tourism Cooperative Research Centre.

Darcy, S. (2010). Inherent complexity: Disability, accessible tourism and accommodation

information preferences. Tourism Management.

Darcy, S., and Dickson, T. J. (2009). A whole-of-life approach to tourism: The case for
accessible tourism experiences. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 16(1), 32–
44. doi:10.1375/jhtm.16.1.32.

Darcy, S., and Harris, R. (2003). Inclusive and accessible special event planning: An
Australian perspective. Event Management, 8(1), 39-47. doi: 10.3727/152599503108751685

Darcy, S., andPegg, S. (2011). Towards strategic intent: Perceptions of disability service
provision amongst hotel accommodation managers. International Journal of Hospitality
Management, 30(2), 468-476. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhm.2010.09.009

EFTGA. (1998). European federation of tour guides association. Information brochure

European Commission (1996). Making Europe accessible for tourists with disabilities:
Handbook for the tourism industry. Luxembourg. Office for Official Publications of the
European Communities, Directorate.

European Disability Forum. (2001). EDF position paper on tourism: Framing the future of
European tourism. Retrieved from http://ebookbrowse.com. [Accessed 15 September 2015].

Gentemann, K. and Whitehead, T. (1983). The cultural broker concept in bicultural

education. Journal of Negro Education, 52 (2), 118–29.

51 | P a g e
Goh, H.C. (2008), “Sustainable tourism and the influence of privatisation in protected area
management: A case study of Kinabalu Park”. Ecology and Development Series, 57.
Retrieved from http://www.zef.de/fileadmin/webfiles/downloads/zefcecology
developments/eds 57 gohtext.pdf . [Accessed 15 September 2015].

Goh, H.C. (2008), “Sustainable tourism and the influence of privatisation in protected area
management: A case study of KinabaluPark”.Ecology and Development Series, 55 (5), 115-
20.

Ham, S. and Weiler, B. (2005).Toward a theory of quality in cruise-based interpretive

guiding. Journal of Interpretation Research 7 (2), 29–49.

Ham, S.H. andWeiler, B. (2005).“Six principles for tour guide training and sustainable
development in developing countries”. Denmark. Presented at 9th Nordic Tourism Research
Conference. Research Centre for Bornholm.

Holloway, CJ. (1981). The guided tour: a sociological approach. Annals of Tourism
Research, 8, 377-402.

Hu, W. (2007).“Tour guides and sustainable development: the case of Hainan, China”,
Unpublished Doctoral thesis.Canada.University of Waterloo. Ontario.

Israeli, A.A. (2002). A preliminary investigation of the importance of site accessibility

factors for disabled tourists. Journal of Travel Research, 41(1), 101–104.

Jennings, G. (2010). Tourism research. (2nd ed.). Sydney: Wiley.

Jezewski, M. and Sotnik, P. (2001).The Rehabilitation Service Provider as Culture

Broker:Providing Culturally Competent Service to Foreign Born Persons. Buffalo, NY:
Center for International Rehabilitation Research Information and Exchange.

Katz, S. (1985).The Israeli teacher-guide: The emergence and perpetuation of a

role.Annals of Tourism Research, 12, 49–72.

Kimmel, J. (undated) Introduction to Interpretation. Retrieved from WWW at http://nature

tourism.tamu.edu/ntiusefulresources/interpintro.htm. [Accessed 13 September 2015].

Lovelock, B.A. (2010).“Planes, trains and wheelchairs in the bush: attitudes of people with
mobility-disabilities to enhanced motorised access in remote natural settings”. Tourism
Management, 31 (3), 357-66.

52 | P a g e
Luck, M. (2003).“Education on marine mammal tours as agent for conservation- but do
tourists want to be educated?”. Ocean and Coastal Management, 46, 943-956.

McKercher, B., Packer, T., Yau, M.K., and Lam, P. (2003). Travel agents as facilitators or
inhibitors of travel: Perceptions of people with disabilities. Tourism Management, 24(4),
465–474.

Moscardo, G., Philip Pearce, A. M., Green, D. and O'Leary, J. T. (2000).'Developing a

Typology for Understanding Visiting Friends and Relatives Markets'. Journal of Travel
Research, 38 (3), 251-259.

Moscardo, G., Woods, B. and Saltzer R. (2004).The role of interpretation in wildlife

tourism. Chapter 12 in K. Higginbottom (ed.) Wildlife Tourism: Impacts, Planning and
Management. London. Common Ground.

National People’s Congress of China. (1990). Law of the People’s Republic of China on the
protection of disabled persons 1990. Retrieved from
http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/WEBTEXT/31906/64869/E90CHN01.htm. [Accessed 23
September 2015].

Nettekoven, L. (1979).Mechanisms of intercultural interaction. In E. DeKadt (ed.)

Tourism: Passport to Development. New York: Oxford University Pres.

Open Doors Organization. (2005). Research among adults with disabilities: Travel and
hospitality.Chicago, IL: Author.

Oschell, C. M. (2009). Communication competencies in a guided nature-based tourism

context. Unpublished Doctoral dissertation. USA.University of Montana.

Overend, D. (2012). Performing Sites: Illusion and Authenticity in the Spatial Stories of
the Guided Tour. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 12:1, 44-54.

Packer, T.L., Small, J., and Darcy, S. (2008). Tourist experiences of individuals with vision
impairment.Queensland. Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre.

Patton, M. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods. (3rd ed). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.

Pierce, L. L. (1998). Barriers to Access: Frustrations of people who use awheelchair for
full-time mobility. Rehabilitation Nursing, 23(3), 120–125.doi:10.1002/rnj.1998.23.issue-3

53 | P a g e
Pond, K.L. (1993). The professional guide: Dynamics of tour guiding. New York. Van
Nostrand Reinhold.

Poria, Y., Reichel, A., and Brandt, Y. (2009). People with disabilities visit art museums:An
exploratory study of obstacles and difficulties. Journal of Heritage Tourism,4(2), 117–129.
doi:10.1080/17438730802366508.

Poria, Y., Reichel, A., and Brandt, Y. (2010). The flight experiences of people
withdisabilities: An exploratory study.Journal of Travel Research, 49(2), 216–
227.doi:10.1177/0047287509336477

Prakash M. andChowdhary N. (2010). What Are We Training Tour Guides For?. India.
Turizma.

Robotic, B. (2010).Tourist Guides in Contemporary Tourism. International Conference on

Tourism and Environment, Sarajevo, March 4 – 5.

Reisinger, Y., and Steiner, C.J. (2006). Reconceptualising object authenticity. Annals of
Tourism Research, 33 (1), 65–86.

Richards, G. (2001). Cultural attractions and European tourism. Wallingford: CABI

Publishing.

Saito, Y. (2006). Awareness of universal design among facility managers in Japan and the
United States. Automation in Construction, 15(4), 462–478.
doi:10.1016/j.autcon.2005.06.013

Schmidt C. (1979). The guided tour – insulated adventure. Urban Life, 4, 441–467.

Shaw, G., and Coles, T. (2004). Disability, holiday making and the tourism indus- try in the
UK: A preliminary survey. Tourism Management, 25(3), 397–403. doi:10.1016/S0261-
5177(03)00139-0.

Sparrow, W.A. and Mayne, S.C. (1990), “Recreation patterns of adults with intellectual
disabilities”. Therapeutic Recreation Journal, 24(3), 45-9.

Stumbo, N., and Pegg, S. (2004).Choices and challenges: Physical activity and people with
disabilities. Annals of Leisure Research, 7(2), 104–126.

United Nations. (2008). Definition of Disability in Selected National Legislations. Retrieved

from http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/. [Accessed 18 September 2015].

54 | P a g e
Weick, K.E. (1979). The social psychology of organizing. (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-
Hill.

Weick, K.E. (2001). Making sense of the organisation. Oxford: Blackwell

Weiler, B., and Ham, S. (2001). Tour guides and interpretation. In D. Weaver (Ed.). The
encyclopedia of ecotourism, 549–563. Wallingford: CABI Publishing.

Wilhite, B. and Keller, M.J. (1992), “The role of therapeutic recreation in community
involvement: patterns and perceptions of older adults with developmental disabilities”.
Annual in Therapeutic Recreation, 3, 18-32.

Wong, K. et al., (1998b). Professional tour guiding:An exploratory investigation of current

practices. In:Tanyan, Korea.ConferenceProceedings.The Fourth Asia Pacific Tourism
Association Conference, 256 –260, August 18–21.

World Health Organization. (2011). World report on disability. Retrieved from

http://www.who.int/disabilities/world_report/2011/report/en/index.html. [Accessed 15
September 2015].

Yau, M.K., McKercher, B. and Packer, T.L. (2004).“Traveling with a disability more than
an access issue”.Annals of Tourism Research, 31 (4), 946-60.

Zillinger, M., Jonass, M., and Adolf, P. (2012).Guided Tours and Tourism. Scandinavian
Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 12 (1), 1-7.

55 | P a g e
 APPENDICES

Appendix 1

Midlands State University

P. Bag 9055, Gweru, Zimbabwe

Tel:+263 54 260283, 260641

Fax: +263 54 260233/260068

Faculty of Commerce

DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT

Date________________________________________

Dear Sir/Madam

RE: LETTER OF INTRODUCTION

This letter serves to introduce Nyasha Chikanya final year student at the above institution.
She is doing a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) Degree in Tourism and Hospitality
Management. He is undertaking a research titled: TOUR GUIDES EXPERIENCES WITH
TOURISTS WITH DISABILITIES as part of her degree program.

The department therefore kindly asks for your assistance in this regard. Please note that the
information you shall provide will be used for academic purposes only and will be treated
with utmost confidentiality.
Your cooperation will be greatly appreciated.

For any inquiries please contact the undersigned.

Yours faithfully

Dr O. Chikuta

(Chairperson: [email protected]/ +263 913 094 501)

56 | P a g e
 Appendix 2

Interview guide for the tour guides at the Military Museum in Gweru

I am Nyasha Chikanya a fourth year student at Midlands State University currently

studying a Bachelor of Commerce Honours Degree in Tourism and Hospitality
Management. I am undertaking a research entitled “Tour guides experiences with tourists
with disabilities ’’ as a requirement in partial fulfilment for my degree program. Please be
informed that all the material, information or responses provided to the researcher for this
study will be treated with confidentiality and used for academic purposes only.

1. What is your age range?

2. What type of tour guiding do you provide at the museum?
3. Have you ever guided tourists with disabilities?
4. What were their disabilities?
5. What activities are offered at the Military museum to tourists with disabilities?
6. Are they designed to fully cater for tourists with disabilities and how?
7. What activities do tourists with disabilities like most and why?
8. What are the activities that tourists with disabilities cannot take part in at your facility
and why?
9. What are the concerns that the tourists with disabilities have reported during tours?
10. What are the challenges that you have encountered whilst guiding tourists with
disabilities?
11. Describe the most positive and negative experiences that you have encountered with
tourists with disabilities?
12. What do you suggest should be changed in order to have tours with tourists with
disabilities?

Thank you for your assistance and cooperation

57 | P a g e
 Appendix 3

Interview guide for the tour guides at Antelope Park in Gweru

I am Nyasha Chikanya a fourth year student at Midlands State University currently

studying a Bachelor of Commerce Honours Degree in Tourism and Hospitality
Management. I am undertaking a research entitled “Tour guides experiences with tourists
with disabilities ’’ as a requirement in partial fulfilment for my degree program. Please be
informed that all the material, information or responses provided to the researcher for this
study will be treated with confidentiality and used for academic purposes only.

1. What is your age range?

2. What type of tour guiding do you provide at the game park?
3. Have you ever guided tourists with disabilities?
4. What were their disabilities?
5. What activities are offered at the game park to tourists with disabilities?
6. Are they designed to fully cater for tourists with disabilities and how?
7. What activities do tourists with disabilities like most and why?
8. What are the activities that tourists with disabilities cannot take part in at your facility
and why?
9. What are the concerns that the tourists with disabilities have reported during tours?
10. What are the challenges that you have encountered whilst guiding tourists with
disabilities?
11. Describe the most positive and negative experiences that you have encountered with
tourists with disabilities?
12. What do you suggest should be changed in order to have tours with tourists with
disabilities?

Thank you for your assistance and cooperation

58 | P a g e
 Appendix 4

Interview guide for the tour guides at Bally Vaughn Game Park in Shamva, Harare

I am Nyasha Chikanya a fourth year student at Midlands State University currently

studying a Bachelor of Commerce Honours Degree in Tourism and Hospitality
Management. I am undertaking a research entitled “Tour guides experiences with tourists
with disabilities ’’ as a requirement in partial fulfilment for my degree program. Please be
informed that all the material, information or responses provided to the researcher for this
study will be treated with confidentiality and used for academic purposes only.

1. What is your age range?

2. What type of tour guiding do you provide at the game park?
3. Have you ever guided tourists with disabilities?
4. What were their disabilities?
5. What activities are offered at the game park to tourists with disabilities?
6. Are they designed to fully cater for tourists with disabilities and how?
7. What activities do tourists with disabilities like most and why?
8. What are the activities that tourists with disabilities cannot take part in at your facility
and why?
9. What are the concerns that the tourists with disabilities have reported during tours?
10. What are the challenges that you have encountered whilst guiding tourists with
disabilities?
11. Describe the most positive and negative experiences that you have encountered with
tourists with disabilities?
12. What do you suggest should be changed in order to have tours with tourists with
disabilities?

Thank you for your assistance and cooperation

59 | P a g e