Training the trainers - intercultural and intereducational benefits of US community colleges to hospitality industry

Purpose – Viewing tourism as an intercultural activity, constructed within and through languages has become an interesting vantage in tourism research. The paper focuses on the objectives and benefits of a long lasting mutual cooperation between a group of American community colleges (CCID) and the University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, (UKLO) Macedonia. Design –The paper is designed into several sections including introduction, body of the paper and conclusion. Methodology – This paper deploys empirical material gained from an ethnographic research of the relationship between languages, intercultural communication and tourism carried out diachronically by the authors in the Ohrid tourist region, on the one hand, and intercultural initiatives of UKLO with community colleges, on the other hand. For the purpose of the paper and analytical method have been implemented in the research. A cross-cultural contrastive analyses has been also incorporated in the research of the paper. Approach – Diachronic approach has been implemented in order to stress the importance of nourishing initial cooperation, development and sustainability of CCID – UKLO contacts. Viewing tourism as a performative cultural communitas between human agents, a contrastive analyses of communicative speech acts has been implemented in order to stress the importance for successful intercultural communication. Findings – The findings highlight the crucial role of the benefits from successful intercultural and inter-educational cooperation. Training faculty staff (professors and teaching assistants) to get further outreach of intercultural communication with a special accent on American culture in tourism and hospitality industry, is an additional benefit for contribution towards internationalising the curricula in tourism studies. Originality of the research – Originality is viewed in the author’s long lasting research in this field.