Host-guest cultural interactions: Service encounters between Vietnamese hosts and international visitors

The segmentation of markets is long established within the tourism literature. Markets have been divided into homogeneous or distinct groupings segments or on the basis of socio-demographics, travel characteristics, psychographics, geographic and behavioural characteristics. Amongst these approaches, the common ones are nationality, benefits sought, tourist role and social class, with nationality and rules of social interaction (or rules of behaviour) being the most important segmentation variables to be included. The present study investigated similarities and differences between international tourists from China, France and the USA, based on social and cultural interactions with Vietnamese service providers. The chapter presents the findings of a self-administered survey administered to 170 American, 180 French and 235 Chinese tourists visiting Vietnam. The rules of behaviour guiding Western and Asian respondents were found to have more differences than similarities. The differences impact upon host and guest inter-cultural interactions during the delivery and consumption of services. In terms of implications for destination managers and marketers, it is recommended that Vietnam's tourism authorities target international tourism markets more precisely and improve the quality of service provision.