Book about the linguistics of tourism English available on Amazon!

When I started planning Sun, Sea, Sex and the Unspoilt Countryside. How the English language makes tourists out of readers, there was very little out there about the linguistics of tourism English, i.e. about the specialized form of discourse represented by the language of tourism in promotional and informative materials.

Graham Dann’s book, The Language of Tourism was about the only book that I was able to find. It is an excellent analysis of many of the techniques used in the language of tourism, but it tackles the linguistic problems only secondarily. The main focus is on the sociological aspects of the language of tourism. It is more a wide semiotic analysis than a strictly linguistic one.

In Italy, some interesting articles had been published by two scholars at the University of Cagliari, Luisanna Fodde and Olga Denti and an excellent article by Maurizio Gotti on the linguistic features of tourism English as a type of specialized discourse had just appeared in a volume edited by Palusci and Francesconi.

This was the sign that scholars were starting to realize that English for tourism was much more than the few stock phrases found in textbooks for students of ESP or in business letters and restaurant menus. A serious analysis was needed in order to unveil the underlying mechanisms which produce very different effects in the reader and that are skillfully used by copywriters and marketing specialists to promote destinations and services.

It is not just a matter of the language of tourism promotion, though. A peculiar use of the language is evident in informative materials as well, in guidebooks for instance.

And nothing had been said about the new forms of textuality: the language of tourism websites, of reviews and trip reports.

This is why I found the process of writing this book very interesting. My aim was to unveil the main linguistic features capable of transforming readers into real tourists, since what Dann says in his book is very true: tourism is indeed grounded in discourse.

I wanted to make these linguistic strategies evident for students of tourism science, so that they can learn how native English speakers frame destinations to make them appealing to a specific target audience or how they mark their subjective evaluation in informative texts, and in so doing still manage to promote or advise against destinations and services.

As a teacher of linguistics of tourism English, I thought this was the best contribution I could make to their professional and academic education.

Now the book is available on the amazon.co.uk website for non-residents of Italy.

For somebody like me, who has spent thousands of euros buying from Amazon websites, I promise it is a pretty cool feeling!!!

For Italian residents, the best way to get the book, besides through your favourite book store, is from the publisher’s website.

I have to say that immediately after my book was published two other interesting works were also published, a book by S. Francesconi and one by M. G. Nigro, as a testimony to the increasing interest in this research field.

I have to thank very much prof. Brownlees and prof. Fodde for their generous comments.

An invaluable textbook for university students working in tourism English. Clear, easy-to-read analyses of key issues in tourism discourse with well-chosen, accessible reading texts and activities. I strongly recommend it.

Prof. Nicholas Brownlees, University of Florence, Italy

This book is a thorough and updated report on tourist English discourse. Not only does it represent a professional and scientific overview of how the English language works in tourist environments, it is also an essential tool for students majoring in English and specialising in ESP. The book is divided into 7 chapters, each devoted to the materials used by tourist advertisers to promote their products. Thus, the author is able to emphasise not only the communicative role of written texts, but also the great importance that digital texts have in enhancing verbal and non-verbal communication, adding extra value and stimulus to language analysis. The author’s conclusions underline how the double approach of the book, the didactic and the research one, can lead to new and interesting methodological insights.

Prof. Luisanna Fodde, University of Cagliari, Italy