Towards an Understanding of Integration amongst Hospitality and Tourism Students using Bennett's Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity

By many measures, the higher education classroom is becoming more culturally diverse and recent years have seen a steady increase in the number of international students studying at UK universities. Using Bennett’s (1986, 1993) developmental model of intercultural sensitivity (DMIS), this study aimed to measure the extent to which both home and international students are interculturally sensitive towards each others’ needs in a post-92 British University. Using a cohort of undergraduate hospitality and tourism management students, the research identified emerging problems and benefits associated with cultural differences, with international students progressing toward the ethnorelative stages of Bennett’s (1993) model and UK students retaining ethnocentric attitudes.