Cross-cultural Tourism (Instructor Led) Jan 2026

About Course

In order to be effective in a global world, more specifically in the tourism industry, people must have high cultural intelligence.

Cultural intelligence (CQ) is a rich and dynamic skill set that can be developed through self-awareness and study.
Learners in this course will develop skills they can take with them and use at work, at home, abroad, or in any setting where cross-cultural awareness, understanding, and interaction is required.
The focus is on developing competence in cross-cultural communication in a variety of settings related to the tourism industry.

Upon successful completion of this course, learners will be able to:

Understand differing values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours, including one’s own,
Demonstrate how cultural diversity and values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours have an impact on tourism activities
Describe and explain consequences of ethnocentrism, prejudice, racism, and stereotyping,
Cite cross-cultural problems and conflicts in the workplace and describe culturally specific problem-solving strategies to resolve these,
Describe how knowledge of various cultural dimensions such as contextualization, time, cognitive style, individualism and collectivism, power distance, tolerance of ambiguity, and gender relate to understanding client needs and behaviours,
Research and present communication approaches that acknowledge differences
Apply knowledge of cultural expectation of themselves & others to tourism workplace
Utilize knowledge of and cross-cultural communication skills in the provision of tourism services. This includes language, dialect, sender/receiver variables, non-verbal communication, and communication strategies,
Demonstrate an understanding of the need to design culturally sensitive tourism products
Understand and enact strategies for becoming inter-culturally competent,
Design a culturally sensitive tourism activity,
Identify Canadian organizations and legislation contributing to cultural sensitivity.