INVESTIGATING TOURISM STUDENTS’ INTERCULTURAL SENSITIVITY LEVELS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The aim of this study was to determine the intercultural sensitivity level of associate degree students studying Cooking and Tourism and Hotel Management in a state university in Turkey. The study also investigated the students’ intercultural sensitivity level according to some variables such as gender, age, major and grade. For this purpose, the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (Chen & Starosta, 2000) which was adapted into Turkish by Öğüt and Olkun (2018) was conducted as a quantitative data collecting instrument in order to measure the students’ intercultural sensitivity level. The scale had also a separate part including students’ demographic information. The data were collected through a face- to-face survey in spring term in 2022. They were firstly coded and then analyzed through SPSS 20. Additionally, t-test and one-way ANOVA tests were conducted. The results of the study indicated that students’ respect for cultural differences and interaction enjoyment level was found to be very high while interaction attentiveness, interaction engagement and interaction confidence levels were high. Moreover, it appeared that such variables as gender, age, major and grade did not influence students’ intercultural sensitivity perceptions.