Enhancing cross-cultural communication for Chinese tourists in non-native English-speaking destinations: a study of sociolinguistic competence and politeness challenges

Abstract The current study explores the sociolinguistic challenges experienced by Chinese tourists. The purposive sampling approach was applied for data collection to comprehend the respondents’ communication hurdles. Online and offline questionnaires were also distributed to accommodate senior travellers. A total of 964 valid responses were gathered, which reflected the increasing trend of outbound tourism among Chinese nationals. The present study employed sociolinguistic competence as a mediating variable (specifically, its interplay with intercultural communication anxiety and politeness) within the Communicative Competence Model (CCM) framework. Several strategies that consider the nuanced aspects of language and culture are also proposed. The findings can potentially enhance service standards in the tourism sector by improving Chinese visitors’ intercultural communication experiences in various international destinations.