The Effect of Nationality on Tourist Behavior: Israeli Tour Guides\u27 Perceptions

Does nationality make a difference in tourist behavior? To answer this question, 124 Israeli tour- guides were administered a questionnaire soliciting their opinions on 20 behavioral characteristics of American, British, German and French tourists on guided tours. The results indicated that in 18 out of the 20 behavioral characteristics there was a significant perceived difference between the four nationalities. In general, the Americans were perceived to be the most distinct and the French the most similar to other nationalities. A pair-comparison found that the tour-guides perceived the French-British to be the most similar to each other in their behavior, followed by French-Germans, French-Americans and culminating with British-Americans who were perceived to be the most dissimilar. The behavioral characteristics on which the greatest differences by nationality turned up, were \u27\u27buying souvenirs,\u27\u27 \u27\u27shopping,\u27\u27 \u27\u27buying gifts,\u27\u27 and \u27\u27photographing.\u27\u27 The least number of perceived differences were in the variables of \u27\u27trip planning,\u27\u27 and \u27\u27letter writing,\u27\u27 where all nationalities were perceived to be alike