In the contemporary global economy which can be described as dynamic and evolving in nature, one must be aware of the inevitable change in the tourism industry. Due to the demands of the global customer, the world can be seen as increasingly interconnected, thus the traditional workplace has become more diverse. Given diversity, communication barriers have become commonplace. As part of this essay, the barriers to intercultural communication described by LaRay M. Barna will be explored; anxiety, the assumption of sameness rather than difference, ethnocentricity, stereotypes and prejudice, non-verbal misinterpretations, language and modern technology will be discussed in more detail. To move forward, it is essential to define culture and communication. According to Hofstede (1980), “culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another… culture in the sense that it includes systems of values: and values ​​are among the elements constituents of culture. It is necessary to determine how culture affects our communication behavior because culture directly influences our perception and understanding of the message being transmitted from one party to another. People from different cultures encode and decode messages differently; this therefore increases the risk of misunderstanding. Intercultural communication refers to interactions between people whose cultural assumptions are so different that communication between them is impaired. Verderber, Verderber and Sellnow, (2010). First, anxiety arises because one does not know what one is expected to do and one focuses on that feeling, thus being fully present in the communication transaction. Fo...... middle of paper ...... and give them all due respect. Works Cited Hollensen, S. (2011) Global Marketing – A Decision Oriented Approach, Prentice Hall, Financial Times (p.2) Innovateus .net, (2014) “What does ethnocentrism mean? » Available at: http://www.innovateus.net/innopedia/what-does-ethnocentrism-meanPragyaan, (2009) Mass Communication – a biannual journal. Dheradun Institute of Management Studies. Volume 7, number 1 June 2009, ISSN number: 0974-5221. Available at: http://www.iuu.ac/pragyaan/Pragyaan_Mass_Comm_June-09.pdf#page=17The National Post (2012), The Symbolic Meaning of a Handshake – Joshua Rapp Learn. Available at: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/06/30/the-symbolic-meaning-of-a-handshake/Verderber, K., Verderber, R. & Sellnow, D. (2010) Communicate! Canada: Nelson Education Ltd. (Chapter 5)