Study On European Tourists’’ Cross-Cultural Communication In China

The present study, in the field of intercultural communication, examines the visitor – host communication from the aspect of the European tourist in China. The result shows, that linguistic barriers are not the most important communication barriers in this context, because there are more barriers related to the cultural background differences than related to language. Except identifying the factors and barriers in this communication context, the present study has other findings as well: one of the most interesting discoveries is that the communication-affecting factors’ effect can be direct or indirect. Direct is the effect when the factor affecting the conversation itself. On the other hand, the effect is indirect if it is not directly affecting the conversation, but it affects the possibility of the conversation. From the communicational success point of view the communication failed, if there is no communication occurs, but the communication could have occur. An other interesting finding is a contradiction: the study shows, that the attitude towards strangers are different in these cultures, and the Chinese people’s self-contained mentality towards the tourists is labeled as unfriendly by the Europeans.But this behavior is incompatible with the so-called face theory. The findings of the study show, that this is a very interesting and important field for research, there are many possibilities.