English Competency of the Hospitality Workers and Tourist Satisfaction: Policy Recommendations
Abstract
Despite a large amount of research in tourist satisfaction, little is known about the role of English competency towards tourist satisfaction. To address this gap, the objective of this study is to investigate to what extent the English language ability of hospitality workers is linked to tourist satisfaction in the context of Thai and Indonesian tourists. This quantitative study utilized a questionnaire targeted at the participants with previous trips to Indonesia or Thailand in the last five years. A multilayer framework of tourist satisfaction was adopted to elucidate the variable, while the framework of the hospitality language cycle was employed to measure English competency. The findings reported that both data from Indonesian and Thai participants showed a positive correlation between the English language ability of hospitality workers and tourist satisfaction. The data confirmed that English competency significantly affects tourist satisfaction. This study also revealed English competency of the hospitality workers and tourist satisfaction from the participants’ perspectives. Additionally, the findings add empirical evidence on the crucial role of English as a lingua franca towards its contribution to tourist satisfaction. It serves as an initial database for English curriculum development for tourism higher education and English improvement programs for hospitality workers, in general.
Keywords: English competency, hospitality language, tourist satisfaction, tourists’ perspectives.
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