CfP : The pragmatics of tourist communication

– strategies of adaptation
Publié le juillet 29, 2014
Panel proposal for the 14th International Pragmatics Conference
(Antwerp, July 26 – 31 2015)

As one of the most influential branches of global economy, tourism is established

and maintained by an overwhelming amount of communication practises, which
have not yet been in the focus of linguistic research. Apart from some studies in
the discourse analytical perspective (cf. Thurlow/Jaworski 2010), neither the
increasing variety of text genres often produced in multimodal dimensions nor the
different strategies of representation and promotion of places as destinations
have systematically attracted the attention of linguists.

Being discursive in nature, however, the tourist industry is continuously creating

and differentiating a cross-medial and mostly promotional text culture, which
connects continents, cultures and people. It virtually moves the world, triggering
multiple processes of transformation, so that a remote place is perceived as
home, natural circumstances become special attractions, persons are presented
as hosts or visitors; authentic identities and routines turn into extraordinary goods
in a global event market, where vacation and travel function as desired
consumption products.

Tourist communication is thus responsible for what Urry 1990 calls “the tourist
gaze”, i.e. the global perspective under which locations are “looked at” by
streams of people “on the move”. Previously transformed into spectacular ‘sights’
by different symbolic enactments places become objects of imagination, rich of
emotional charge, which in turn generate further communicative potential.
Therefore, images as mental constructions and visuals as actual iconic
reproductions play a fundamental role in tourist communication: they are
connected to each other in a complex and constant relation of adaptation,
variation and change. This communicative and multimodal textual area strongly
influences language use, so that the “language of tourism” (Dann 1996) can be
considered a variety with special features, which is worth studying from a
pragmatic view-point.

Starting from the assumption that the language of tourism displays special forms
of adaptability, the panel aims to discuss different genres, textual practises and
communication forms. The attention will be focused on variation and change,
concerning both textual structures and the use of codes and modes, mainly
considering how language and speech acts adapt to:

 actors and agents (hosts vs. guests; and their cultures, ideologies, customs, beliefs,
focus interests, life-styles, leisure-preferences, etc.)
  destination building and destination branding (image-components, geo-political
positioning, market competition, reactions to political events and nature
catastrophes; socio-cultural development; historical implications, stereotypes; etc.)
 traditional, emergent and innovative text-genres, text-forms and text-features;
 use in Old and New Media; effects of re-and cross-mediation;
 intra-, inter-cultural and cross-medial campaigns
 text-functions and communicative styles according to the interplay of information,
persuasion and representation;
 technologically enabled multimodality, semiotics and coding (design, visual,
symbols, icons …);
 globalisation trends (‘non-places’; circuits, traffic/transportation means;
transnational institutions and touristic infrastructures)

Within these suggestions a special focus can be put on the specific role of
language

 in displaying its imagery potential;

 in the interaction and interface with other semiotic resources;
 in processes of « languaging » (Dann 1996:184), lingua-culturing or linguistic
landscaping;
 in conditions of language contact, language switching and translation, etc.

All kinds of theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches to any form of

tourist communication are welcome. Actual examples – possibly with visual
support – should make the panel a colourful and lively journey into the multiplicity
of tourist places and their different pragmatic rendering.

Bibliography:

Santulli, Francesca/ Antelmi, Donella/ Held, Gudrun: Pragmatica della

comunicazione turistica. Roma, Editori Riuniti 2007/ 20092.
Dann, Graham M.S.: The language of Tourism. A Sociolinguistic Perspective.
Wallingford UK, CAB International 1996.

Thurlow, Crispin/ Jaworski, Adam: Tourism Discourse. Language and Global

Mobility. Houndmills, Palgrave Macmillan 2010.
Urry, John: The Tourist Gaze. London, SAGE 1990.