Abstract:
Tourist Guides play a vital role in satisfying the tourists visiting a country and the
quality of interpretation is the main concern of the tourists as well as the travel
agencies. The travel agencies receive complains frequently from overseas tour
operators about the tour guides regarding their poor knowledge about the attraction
sites, cheating behavior, lack of fluency in language etc. The study focuses to identify
interpretation quality of tourist guides and its impact on tourists' satisfaction. The
study is conducted as a questionnaire survey using 192 foreign tourists who
experienced round tours with National or Chauffeur guides registered in reputed
DMCs in Sri Lanka. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation and
multiple regression analyses. The study has proved the interpretation quality of guides
greatly influence the tourists’ satisfaction. The factors related to the interpretation
quality such as elaboration and relevancy of information are positively influenced the
tourists satisfaction whilst the factors i.e. empathy and positive attitude towards nature
are negatively influenced the tourists’ satisfaction. The study offers both theoretical
insights related to interpretation and tourist satisfaction as well as practical
implications for improving interpretive tour guiding in round tours in Sri Lanka.
