The integration of idiomatic tourists in Barcelona

Abstract

Language tourism has been scarcely explored and constitutes an interesting field of study due to its idiosyncrasy. Even though the cultural exchange associated to this tourist activity provides significant gains to all the stakeholders involved, it also entails many difficulties which must be taken into consideration and managed properly. The general objective of the project reported in this article has been to investigate how language tourists’ integration in the local community occurs in Barcelona (Spain). Bearing this aim in mind, the difficulties that interfere with such immersion have been identified in order so as to offer measures that can contribute to overcome them in the future. Three research techniques have been used following a qualitative approach to obtain information from language tourism providers and the researchers’ own experiences: in-depth interviews, participant observation and online search. After the data analysis, an action plan has been designed with practical proposals in order to enhance the international students’ integration. Further research could focus on the application of such measures and analyse if the proposals eventually achieve the expected results.