Gladys Palmer, CTIE
Navigating through conflict on a group tour
Group tours bring together people from a wide variety of backgrounds, cultures, passions and opinions to share a common adventure. These differences in and of itself can cause and will often require camaraderie and compromise to maintain smoothe positive balance.
Understanding the overall dynamics of the participants and the surrounding environment is essential to preplanning and proactively providing solutions for the potential conflicts that may arise in order to craft a drama free tour. One that results in a better overall experience for the travelers, tour operator and its suppliers.
The Sources of Conflict
When preparing ahead, consider there is a wide variety of sources. Think about culture. As mentioned previously, a tour will likely involve travelers with different backgrounds. One travelers’ culture may be different from another and the simple misunderstanding of the two can lead to tension and stress for the passenger. Secondarily, poor reviews and cancellations for the tour operator and less traffic for the suppliers… Nobody wins!. Let’s use gratuities as an example: An American traveler may extend a tip to a server as an expression of thanks or a job well done. A Japanese traveler may find that offensive and complain. Later we will talk about strategies for resolving this type of matter, but before running a tour, one might consider obtaining a certification in cultural sensitivity training. This will provide a little background on what cultural differences really are, why it matters and how to be more mindful of it. A great source is Learn Tourism – the nonprofit academy.
Another source of conflict to consider is that every group will involve a number of people with totally different personalities. The quiet introvert, the rowdy extrovert, the late Larry, the prissy pricilla, a negative Nelly or two, a class clown and a Mr know-it-all. They potentially all may wind up on that tour bus all at the same time and let’s not forget the one who believes that if you are not early, you are definitely late. The late one is going to need some monitoring because they will clash for sure if they dont keep up. This can cause a disruption to maintaining the peace and harmony, especially during unforeseen situations that can come about such as an itinerary change due to weather or emergency like a pipe burst causing the attraction to close abruptly for repair. How these personalities will respond to these situations often leads to heavy tension, frustration and anxiety. A key thing to note here is that, when managed proactively and balancing the dynamics can actually enrich the experience and reduce negative outcomes.
The unforeseen circumstances. The travel industry is full of uncertainty and many things can spark the very personality conflicts we just discussed. Delayed flights, weather disruptions, or sudden changes to the itinerary can test peoples’ patience and reduce adaptability. For example, the perfectionism of the Genius may struggle to adjust to a cancelled excursion or attraction. This will clash with the others who have more of a “go-with-the-flow” attitude. Similarly, unexpected stressors like lost luggage or incorrect room assignment at the hotel may cause frustration, making individuals more likely to clash with others in the group. Pay close attention to the variety in tolerance levels of the group because the ones who thrive on tight schedules will get frustrated while the Class Clown and Rowdy One are ready to pivot and rock on. Know how to manage the crowd.
Managing Conflicts and why it’s important to the business
How you manage conflict will impact the overall morale of the group and also affect the overall trip experience. Since the Tour leader is always expected and perceived to be in charge. On one hand, the leader is trusted to always know what to do and effectively managing conflict builds credibility while yielding cooperation. On the other hand, neglecting to do so will create a perception of incompetence and inexperience building distrust.
When a tour leader prevents conflict effectively and quickly resolves situations they create a better trip experience for the travelers because it maintains group focus of energy on the original purpose of the trip and encourages connection and exploration. The goal is to always foster and maintain camaraderie with a smooth and positive atmosphere, while encouraging shared experiences. If not the group can fall apart and possibly become too cliquey and divided.
Conflict should be dealt with constructively to ensure group safety. The statement by Benjamin Franklin that “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is very relevent here. The emotional scars and sometimes physical, can be prevented when a tour leader is both proactive and constructive in their approach. There are mutual benefits as well. The travelers will essentially become the students and learn to communicate, empathize and embrace each other for their differences while enjoying the tour. These experiences often extend beyond the tour and cultivate lasting friendships. With great memories and experiences come great reviews and rebooked tours. So now that we’ve uncovered the why. Let’s go through some strategies to prevent and manage conflicts effectively.
Strategies to prevent conflict: Set the Stage
How can Tour Managers address Cultural conflict? “Prepare before the tour” will be repeated. A great first step is to take a cultural sensitivity course that is tailored specific to the destination of the tour. Research the social norms and get familiar with the local customs such as dress code, etiquette, and provide a reference flyer with the basics and include it in their packet. Be on the lookout for the things that display a mutual respect. Pay special attention to what locals find offensive and how they commonly express gratitude then discuss them with the group prior to the tour. Earlier in this article we referenced a perfect example of “ Not Tipping” in Japan. This will help avoid offending a local that may possibly spiral into something bigger and also ensure safety when off the bus. When addressing your tour group they should encourage open mindedness to error on the side of positive intent.
Similar to managing Cultural differences, personality conflicts can present challenges as well. Tour leaders can resort to mediation techniques and take a proactive approach to effectively reduce the level of conflict in a constructive way. The idea behind mediation is to establish a mutual understanding, sense of compromise and overall bond within the group. One way this can be done is through creating an interactive exercise before the tour starts using any group activity that will encourage each member to share what is unique about where they come from. Using an open format and prefacing with statements like free expression and judgement free zone is always a good foundation to adjust the general mindset. Create dialogues and games that help the group get to know each other personally a little better. The tour leader shouldnt overlook little things, like preferred seating arrangements and basics of respecting personal space.
Unforeseen circumstances will always rain on your parade. Weather disruptions will especially alter the itinerary and often spoil the fun. Travel delays, Oversold hotels, Cancelled events are all among the common culprits. When any number of these scenarios occur it creates a stressful environment and increasing frustration that fuels conflict within the group. This is where transparency, emotional support and effective communication stand paramount in establishing a resiliency in the crowd. If the Tour Leader proactively communicates in a transparent way about what has occurred–while showing emotional support by reassuring the group that their concerns will be heard, and doing so with a great deal of patience–can significantly reduce tension. Lets look at a flight delay as an example, a tour leader can show communication by first announcing the delay and providing regular updates, while waiting they should have a group game to play to maintain morale and pass the time. As a tour leader once you’ve set the stage, the techniques by which a resolution is acquired are easier to apply.
Conflict Resolution Techniques: Time to perform
Once the proactive steps have been taken to prevent typical issues that may pop up it’s important to be mindful, vigilant and extremely patient to ensure that any scenario that plays out can and will be addressed with the right approach. Let’s say you have a group of International Students visiting some region of the Middle East. Very relevant and probably not a good idea at the time of this paper–considering what is happening in Isreal–but, this is a hypothetical. Suppose a student were to just whip out their phone for a selfie, right in front of a Religious monument and completely unaware that this is frowned upon by locals or even other tour participants and deemed as inappropriate and disrespectful behavior. Taking action immediately by using this as a teachable moment can be one way to mediate the situation. By announcing to the group that you want to pause and take a minute to talk about the monument’s religious importance and why it means so much to local culture can prevent escalation. A quick pivot to encourage engagement by fielding questions and sharing perspectives in the open can easily segway to explain how taking a selfie might be inappropriate to one person over another based on importance of the statue. Then shift the topic while remaining relevant by asking one or two members to share something of importance to them in their country, city or religion. Not only will it reduce the initial tension, but it will also help the crowd embrace diversity by generating a cultural awareness.
Given the same scenario consideration should be given to personalities. When a guide takes action by invoking an open discussion about local customs and religious significance of the statue there is a second prong to the approach at play. The discussion is now structured which provides a level of control over the flow. Let’s assume there is an introvert who is upset because the selfie–to them–was a blatant disrespect to the sacred statue. Conversely, an extrovert is among them fueling up the class clown mentioned earlier. The extrovert continues to voice opinions, while the class clown throws in a joke or two and now appears to be making a mockery of the whole experience leaving the introvert feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. With control of the discussion a timing technique can now be implemented to round robin the crowd and give them each a chance to speak and express their points of view, making them all feel heard including the introvert. The overall experience now becomes more inclusive the extrovert and class clown are more mindful about their behavior having heard all perspectives. The guide has successfully diffused a potentially ugly situation and strengthened the overall group dynamic.
The international student group can now get on the bus and take off to the next stop of the tour. Still hypothetically speaking the bus approaches a road closure ahead caused by a local citywide event. Unfortunately, unforeseen circumstances may very well occur. This one in particular has altered the itinerary and now some travelers have started to complain and tension resurfaces. In this case, the guide should be very transparent about what can be done and what can’t. Quickly address the group with acknowledgement of their frustration with empathy and immediately seek alternatives. Giving options that align with the group’s interests despite the road closure is especially helpful because it will minimize the setback.
How conflict is managed matters
Proactive conflict management builds trust in the Tour Leader and encourages cooperation. It’s essential to resolving matters quickly and effectively, so that every tour can be a positive and rewarding experience. Pre-prep for potential conflict by addressing matters early can be the difference between a challenge becoming a catastrophy or valuable learning experience. Travelers will enjoy their tour to the fullest and in the safest way possible and even rebook business. Make conflict management a key part of all tour planning. Travel is a vibe thing and the memories the souvenir!
