Abstract:
Tourist destinations in Kenya have been underutilized for a long period of time.This has been
characterized by limited number of visitors to some tourist destinations. The few who arrive,
leave the destinations earlier than planned while others cancel their trips unexpectedly. For
instance, UNWTO recorded a negative growth of the tourism sector of 5% in 2016 and a major
decline of 7% in 2017.Tour guides play important roles such as; enhancing the social
environment, interpreting, handling problems, insulating travelers from difficulties and making
the environment safe for tourists. In addition, tour guides as frontline staff provide the ‘moment
of truth’ for a tourists, and are critical for tourists satisfaction. Tour guides competence in
interpretation of information is key in enhancing visitor satisfaction. Previous studies have
identified a crucial need for research on the role played by tour guides communicative
competencies on tourist satisfaction. With Rimoi National Reserve, Kenya as a study area, this
research assessed the contribution of tour guides competence in interpretation of information on
tourist satisfaction. Specifically, the study assessed the contribution of knowledge level,
communicative skills and tour guides attributes ontourist satisfaction. The study was guided by
the communicative model of competence. The research used both descriptive and explanatory
research designs. The target population comprised of 1,280tourists from which a sample of 128
tourists were selected through stratified and systematic random sampling techniques. Closedended
questionnaires were used for tourists to collect primary data. Both Descriptive and
inferential statistics were undertaken. Quantitative statistics included mean and percentages
while inferential statistics included multiple regression analysis. From the regression model R2
=0.717 indicates that competency of the tourguide explains 71.7% variance in touristsatisfaction
was accounted for by its relationship to competency of the tour guides. Results indicate that
knowledge level (r=0.798 p=0.001), language skills (r=0.83, P=0.001) and tour guides attributes
(r=0.85, p=0.001) contribute significantly to tourist satisfaction. In conclusion the study revealed
that the rating of tour guides knowledge level was lower than the language skills and tour guides’
attributes. Therefore the study recommends that the stakeholders especially tour companies and
the Rimoi National Reserve management to enhance tour guides’ knowledge level through onjob
trainings.The study also recommends that tour guides should be encouraged to collaborate
with their tourism players consequently when they encounter a new issue for better decisions to
solve problems.
