Tourism

Body language

Bodily actions that may be perceived to support or contradict verbal communication, i.e. facial expressions, use of hands, or a person's stance.

Channel

The way the message (communication) is sent, e.g. verbal, written or through body language. Today, there are several types of media often used to aid this process, particularly in the promotion of tourism products, e.g. TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, Internet, emails, facsimile, letters etc.

Colleagues

The people that you work with. They could be within your organisation or other organisations that you deal with to do your job.

Communication

The exchange of messages (communications) between two or more parties. To be successful, most types of communication must be two-way, i.e. from sender to receiver, with feedback (a response) from the receiver back to the sender.

Communication barriers

Noise, poor lighting, information overload, tone, pronunciation and pitch of voice.

Customer needs

Something that is necessary for a client's physical or mental wellbeing.

Decoding

The way the receiver interprets the language, symbols and/or body language.

Effect

The effect the message (communication) has on the receiver.

Efficient

Using minimal resources to get the job done.

Empathy

Appreciation or understanding of how a person feels.

Encoding

The sender converts the message into language, symbols and/or body language, which they believe the receiver will understand.

External tourism customers

Could include: business travellers, families, couples, international visitors, conference delegates, special interest groups etc.

Feedback

The response the receiver of a message gives back to the sender.

Internal tourism customers

Your colleagues. See the definition for colleagues above.

Personal characteristics

Senders and receivers will always have different 'personal characteristics', which should be considered when communicating with others. These characteristics could include levels of education, cultural background, values and beliefs, and disabilities. Different personal characteristics can sometimes distort the message being sent; however, an awareness of this can assist to minimise the distortion.

Rapport

Establishing a comfortable connection with another person so that one finds it easy to relate to the other person.

Receiver

The person who the message (communication) is sent to.

Sender

The person sending a message (communication.

Teamwork

Teamwork is a group of people who collectively work together to achieve a common goal/s.