Old and New Media of the Language of Tourism: Crises of
Credibility and Research Opportunities
 

Graham M. S. Dann, International Tourism Research Centre, University of Luton, UK
 

Abstract

At the theoretical level, many of the traditional channels of “the language of tourism” promotion are closely identified with the print media. Empirically, content/semiotic analysis is typically applied to the text and pictures of brochures, advertisements, travelogues and guidebooks, and conclusions are drawn about this essentially monological discourse linking the tourism industry with its potential and actual clientèle. However, this type of unilateral communication suffers from several crises of credibility – among which are to be found the ideologies of gendering and othering, as well as the sociolinguistic practices of hyperbole and jargon. Examples are provided of these excesses, along with the often-overlooked need to decode them. By contrast, more recent trends indicate that electronic versions of word-of-mouth (Word-of-Web or word-of-mouse) tend to be more dialogical in nature. Whether their more widely disseminated messages are positive (word-of-wish) or negative (word-whinge) in nature, these trickle-up Internet postings appear somehow to be closer to the truth than the top-down ambivalent rhetoric of old. Instances of this newer form of world-wide narrative are examined in relation to e-guides, travel(bl)ogs and e-complaints.