Cross-cultural tourism

Cross-cultural tourism
Introduction
World Adventures has to interact with the people of varied region and country as they
have to take their patrons across the world for travel. The officers have to be familiar with the
cultural differences and negotiating practices between various countries, as they have to
strike a deal with their associate partners in foreign land. International Travel is a local
company in Japan and the representatives of World Adventures have to travel to Japan for
striking a deal of ten 21-day tours to the country. The paper intends to explore the cultural
differences between Canada and Japan and the possible conflict that can happen between the
two cultures. Additionally, it would prepare the negotiating team to interact with the Japanese
party effectively and fluently, without offending them.
Country Analysis and Comparison
Every country has their way of working and presume that foreigners coming to their
country will follow their protocols and working culture. Similarly, the Japanese partner also
expects from World Adventures to be familiarized with their cultural practices and ways of
communication the travel agents visit their country for negotiation (Zandt, 2019). The culture
and lifestyle of Japan are completely different from that of Canada (Lewis, 2014). Japan is a
collectivist society while Canada is largely individualist (Robson, 2017). In individualist
society people have the freedom to follow their own individual goals and aspiration. Such a
society tends to measure the success of an individual based on their personal achievements
and not that of the social group they belong to. To contrast, a collectivist society gives
prominence to the group over individuals and attach the status of the family to the individual.
Thus, Canadian officials travelling to Japan for business negotiations have to pay special
emphasis upon exerting the benefits accruing to their organization or society as a whole.

Canadian officials might be tempted to use ‘I’ instead of ‘We’, but they should refrain from
doing so. Further, they should denote the profit of the International Travel and the
community it operates from, rather than the individual gains.
As per Hofstede cultural dimension, power distance emphasizes power is distributed
unequally between the people within a society and the degree to which the people of the
society accept this fact (Hofstede, 2019). As per the score of 54, Japan is in the borderline of
the power distance dimension, which implies that they are aware of the hierarchy prevalent in
their society and they conduct themselves accordingly. Canada score 39 in this dimension,
which makes its people nonchalant about the social classes present in the society. When
negotiating with the Japanese party, the officials of World Adventures have to be considerate
about the difference in the position of the negotiating officials. Since Japanese people pay
importance to powerful positions, officials either of the same position or higher should be
included in the delegation, so that the executives of International Travel take the business
meeting seriously and reach a common ground in the negotiation. Further, the business
communication should follow the formal chain of command as Japanese respect the
hierarchy.
Uncertainty avoidance is the degree of threat felt by the culture members arising from
uncertain or anonymous situations resulting in the creation of beliefs as well as institutions
which tend to avoid them. Canada scores 48 on the continuum of uncertainty avoidance
suggesting they are willing to accept fresh ideas, break-through innovative products as well
as willing to experiment and try something different or new. On the other hand, Japan at 92
happens to be among the most uncertainty-avoiding countries in the world. (Hofstede, 2019)
They avoid ambiguity to the maximum extent. Keeping in mind the contrasting cultural
dimensions, care has to be taken to prepare the protocol and agenda of the meeting well in
advance. The venue and the dress code for the meeting should be communicated to the