Interpretation involves a person mediating communication that creates meaning to the listeners. As Moscardo et al. (n.d.) states, “interpretation aims to stimulate interest, promote learning, guide visitors in appropriate behavior for sustainable tourism and encourage enjoyment and satisfaction” (p.231). Also, according to Dumbraveanu et al. (2016) , “even if the information is new and raw, through representation one attempts to translate, to assign meaning, by creating connections with previous experiences ” (p.60). That said, as the global tourism industry has expanded, so has the need for interpreters increased. The global tourism industry requires tourist guides with vast skills in interpretation. Tourist guides handle tourists from different parts of the world; thus, they must possess multi-lingual communication skills.
The quality of visitor experience can only be improved if they get the meaning of the tourist sites they visit and the things they see. Through interpretation, the visitors come to appreciate, learn, as well as becoming aware of the things they see, which in turn promotes the cultural heritage of a given nation. For instance, tourists might visit a historical site for adventure. However, without the interpretation services, such tourists might not understand why the historical site exists.
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Creating sustainable tourism revolves around three critical components, namely; quality, continuity, and balancing ( Moscardo et al., n.d.) . Quality means that the visitors experience a satisfaction. Likewise, the host community benefits from improved quality of life due to incomes generated from trading with the tourists as well as ensuring the protection of the environments. On the other hand, continuity in achieving sustainable tourism ensures that tourist sites last longer to service future generations and to ensure that the cultures of the host communities are promoted. The third component of sustainable tourism, balance, ensures that the needs of the host communities and the tourists are met while also ensuring that no harm is done to the environment in times of visits.
There are several benefits of interpretation in tourism. Firstly, interpretation is important as it cements the interactions between the visitors and the historical sites visited. This is an educational component whereby the visitors are taught ways to handle themselves in a manner that has minimal impact on the environment while visiting the sites. It is also during such educative sessions that the visitors learn about safety measures to observe while at the tourist sites. This ensures that the visitor's safety is not compromised.
Likewise, the visitors come to learn why the historic sites are important to the host communities; thus, promoting cultural heritage. This is also educative to the visitors as it helps them understand the meaning of tourist sites they might not have been aware of. Thus, it motivates visitors to develop pro-conservation attitudes that ensure there is continuity in achieving sustainable tourism. Interpretation also enhances the tourist’s satisfaction.
According to Suanmali (2014) , tourists’ satisfaction is “the difference between tourist's expectations and the actual perceived value” (p.3). Therefore, making the visitors understand the meaning of places make them feel satisfied, which might influence their choices while choosing destinations as well as recommending such destinations to other visitors. Likewise, tourists are also likely to have minimal complaints. However, satisfaction can only be achieved if the tourists see the value for their money during their stay at a given destination. Thus, one way of ensuring that the tourists get the value for their money is through interpretation.
All children in the US have equal opportunities to have access to education. It is believed that college education in the US is the key to successfully compete in the job markets since individuals with college degrees earn more income than those without. With high income means that the US citizens live healthier lifestyles and have financial security. In other words, degree holders in the US have less likelihood of living in poverty. However, "the academic achievement gap between low-income students and higher-income students in the United States continues to widen" ( Greely Sr, 2017, p.1). Researchers report that white students perform well academically as compared to black students or Latinos.
This academic achievement gap is associated with several factors, such as the students, as well as the tutor's beliefs. The U.S. educational system comprises of students from different ethnic backgrounds. That said, some tutors lack teacher self-efficacy; that is, they feel incompetent teaching all students regardless of their ethnic backgrounds. Such tutors affect the performance of their learners negatively to an extent they can refer them to Advanced Placement courses. Likewise, other tutors believe that they are inferior in teaching African-American students based on the assumptions that such students don’t perform well; that is, the deficit perspective ( Greely Sr, 2017 ). Such tutors write such students off unless they change to the status quo.
However, despite the negative consequences of such believes, some tutors might never come to know about their actions affecting the learners. This is among the leading contributors to a widening education gap between the whites and non-whites. Thus, federal as well as state laws have been enforced to ensure that the quality of education has been fostered.
Likewise, black tutors also have a hard time due to external pressures to make their black learners succeed. Such tutors strive to make their learners as competitive as learners from white communities. Thus, such tutors strive to incorporate cultural practices in learning to make their learners more competitive in learning. However, due to cultural believes, some children are brought up in backgrounds that do not embrace connectedness in the communities. This makes it challenging for such tutors as " they continue to struggle daily with some students and parents who do not always seem to share the teachers' sense of purpose and community connectedness ” ( Sims, 2017 ). Hence, the students have also been blamed for their downfall.
Also, the students develop attitudes towards learning, especially when they believe that whites are more superior academically than them. Consequently, such students lack the confidence to perform academic tasks as assigned by her tutors as they fear getting intimidated by their white peers. Likewise, as black students strive for academic achievement, they might become stressed due to repeated failure in learning. Verešová & Malá (2016) defines academic achievement as “the ability of the student to study and remember facts and being able to communicate his knowledge orally or in written form even under examination conditions” (p.871). In case students invest their time and effort in learning without comprehension, they are likely to give up easily.
Such students need academic assistance from the tutors. However, some of these students come from poor backgrounds that their parents cannot afford to hire private tutors to coach them independently. Thus, such students are likely to believe that they were born stupid, leading to poor performance at school. Therefore, there need to be investments in one-on-one coaching to help such students overcome negative attitudes that affect them academically.
References
Dumbraveanu, D., Craciun, A., & Tudoricu, A. (2016). Principles of interpretation, tourism, and heritage interpretation – the experience of Romanian museums. HUMAN GEOGRAPHIES – JOURNAL OF STUDIES AND RESEARCH IN HUMAN GEOGRAPHIES , 10 (1), 51–63. https://doi.org/10.5719/hgeo.2016.101.4
Greely, Sr, E. C. (2017). Teachers' beliefs about the ability to engage African-American students and identify for advanced placement through the lens of The Ohio State Teacher Efficacy Survey and the Rand Measure (Doctoral dissertation, University of Missouri--Columbia).
Moscardo, G., Woods, B., & Saltzer, R. (n.d.). The Role of Interpretation in Wildlife Tourism . Retrieved January 12, 2020, from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/45aa/6c154e3984f392ff383b8263ef7f0beaba6f.pdf
Sims, M. J. (2017). African -American teacher beliefs about learning and teaching: Portraits and perspectives of six urban school educators. Dissertations Available from ProQuest , 1–317. https://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI3112560/
Suanmali, S. (2014). Factors Affecting Tourist Satisfaction: An Empirical Study in the Northern Part of Thailand. SHS Web of Conferences , 12 , 01027. https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20141201027
Verešová, M., & Malá, D. (2016). Attitude toward school and learning and academic achievement of adolescents. In 7th International Conference on Education and Educational Psychology, Published by Future Academy .
