Undergraduate Tourism Students’ Views on the Importance of Being Interculturally Competent Speakers of a Foreign Language

Zuzana Sándorová, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia, ID LLCE2017-186;        Abstract: Current trends in tourism industry worldwide emphasise the importance of using foreign languages effectively with regard to the sociocultural background of the communicative situation.  Therefore, the development of intercultural communicative competences of tourism undergraduates is a must at any level of tertiary tourism education.

The present paper brings partial results of a questionnaire survey conducted among the students of the Bachelor’s degree study programme 8.01.01 Tourism at Constantin the Philosopher University in Nitra in Slovakia. The findings of the research, which are to be compared to employers’ needs, reveal undergraduate tourism students’ opinion on the importance of intercultural communicative competences for their future profession as well as the self-assessment of their competency development in the given field.

Keywords: intercultural communicative competences, undergraduate tourism students, competency development, tertiary education, questionnaire survey;