Cultural differences, language attitudes and tourist satisfaction: a study in the Barcelona hotel sector

Abstract

ABSTRACT In most service activities, customer satisfaction depends largely on the direct interaction with service providers. In the case of tourism, this interaction often occurs between people from different countries and whose mother tongues are different. In this context, concepts such as cultural proximity, linguistic accommodation, expectations and language attitudes enrich the analysis of tourist satisfaction. This study uses an interdisciplinary approach that integrates cultural and linguistic elements in the analysis of tourist evaluations in the hotel sector. In particular, the technique of Content Analysis is applied to comments made by hotel guests on Booking.com to determine the extent to which cultural differences, understood in terms of country of origin, influence two relevant aspects of the tourist destination experience: their language attitudes and level of satisfaction with the service received. The findings confirm that the country of origin influences guests’ evaluations and the choice of the language in which the experience is assessed, and reveal that comments concerning language reflect this influence. In particular, linguistic experiences seem to be more important for tourists who emphasise the role of their mother tongue (Italians and French) than for tourists more open to the use of other languages (German and Portuguese).