Literature Review on “Cross-Cultural Communication in Tourism: How Travel Experiences Shape Intercultural Perspectives through Tourism Discourse”

Abstract

The study aims to analyze selected academic literature on tourism and intercultural communication to understand the role of tourism experiences in shaping intercultural views. The study does not focus on tourists' or hosts' lived reality; rather, it examines the empirical content of academic literature to understand how the concept of tourism is represented as a context for intercultural learning, self-reflection, communication, mediation and competence development, as well as for misunderstanding, stereotyping, inequality and power relations. The study uses a qualitative research design based on a literature review (Integrative) and qualitative document-based analysis (Thematic analysis). A systematic search and selection process was used to select a corpus of 16 substantive scholarly publications, and the literature was analyzed theoretically using Byram's (1997) Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) model and critical intercultural communication. The findings reveal four interconnected ways in which travel experiences are conceptualized in literature: tourism as a venue for intercultural learning and reflection; encounters in tourism as processes of negotiation and mediation; tourism as a complex space marked by stereotypes, inequalities, and symbolic violence; and travel experiences as opportunities to build intercultural competence. Overall, this suggests that tourism does not automatically lead to positive intercultural exchange. Instead, its ability to promote intercultural understanding relies on factors like interaction, reflection, interpretation, mediation, and ethical engagement. Structural inequalities and power imbalances can limit this potential. The study provides an important analysis of the discursive construction of tourism as a place of intercultural learning and of tension, inequality, and contestation.