Exploring tour guiding styles: The perspective of tour leader roles

Although previous studies have investigated the tour leadership styles of tour leaders, no scale is available for evaluation. The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable and valid measurement for assessing tour guiding styles from the perspective of tour leaders' roles. Following in-depth interviews, content analysis, and a Q-sort method, we generated the initial items. Twelve tour guiding styles were extracted from an exploratory factor analysis on 243 tour leaders. A confirmatory factor analysis on 474 tour members was then performed to identify the validity of the 43-item tour guiding styles scale. This study extends current knowledge of the tour guiding styles of tour leaders and provides a foundation for building future theoretical concepts of related constructs. The scale provides a useful tool for tour leaders to measure their guiding styles. Furthermore, the results can serve as a reference for travel agencies in arranging tour leaders. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.