Abstract Book of the 8th International Conference on Research in Social Sciences and Humanities
Year: 2025
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Attitudes Of Employees and Social Acceptance of Tourists in The Hospitality Industry
Megi Surmanidze, Prof. Rostom Beridze
ABSTRACT:
Introduction. The problem of social attitudes, social acceptance, and social attitudes among tourists and employees in the hospitality industry is a pressing issue in the tourism industry, employees’ attitudes towards tourists are often negative and are determined by subjective factors, including: religious beliefs, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, skin color, and political factors. The issue requires significant study and a clear presentation of the influences.
Aim and tasks. The aim of the study is to determine the social acceptance among hospitality industry employees and tourists. The tasks are: Discussion of sources about social relations and social interaction, Determination of the nature and forms of social acceptance among tourists and employees, Analysis of factors hindering social acceptance among tourists and employees,
Results. The research carried out in July with online questionnaire 2024 in the city of Adjara, Batumi is innovative in its importance. The social acceptance survey was conducted for 20 days, respondents who are employed in accommodation facilities, small, medium and large hotels (from 30 rooms to 1200 rooms) were randomly selected for the research. The study analyzes the importance of social acceptance, the current degree of social acceptance of cultural, political, ethnic, racist, sexual constituent factors, Impeding factors and the degree of social acceptance among employees and tourists. The social acceptance research revealed the influence of several important factors on social acceptance among employees and tourists, including politics and culture..
The study showed that respondents’ attitudes and moods towards tourists are determined by political factors, which are preceded by history and existing political relations with some countries, including Russia. For almost 27% of the respondents, Russians are the most undesirable nationality for tourists. Social acceptance and attitudes regarding political factors are not strongly and significantly related to the gender of the respondents, Negative attitudes due to political factors are more likely to be felt by women (53–47%). The importance of sexual orientation was also revealed during the research process. It turned out that approximately 11.8% of employees find tourists with different sexual orientations unacceptable, and they have a bad or very bad attitude towards them,
Conclusions. The study revealed the social attitudes of employees towards tourists, with political factors being identified as a particularly important factor in terms of forming negative social attitudes towards tourists. A certain part of the respondents cites sexual orientation as the reason for negative attitudes towards tourists. During the research process, the respondents also expressed their positions on cultural differences, and in this regard, the respondents expressed tolerant positions. This study provides and its results provide important information on social attitudes arising from intercultural differences, the tolerance of locals, and consequently, changes in social attitudes.
Understanding the importance of social acceptance will help companies and management improve service quality, develop social attitudes, and foster social relationships. the study revealed that the management and corporate culture in accommodation facilities need to be modeled in a way that reduces employees’ negative attitudes towards tourists., By implementing training’s on the topics of communications, management style, social acceptance, identification, and social acceptance.
Keywords: Attitudes, Employee, Hospitality Industry, Social Acceptance, Tourists