Official Tourism Websites

A Discourse Analysis Perspective

By (author) Dr. Richard W. Hallett, Judith Kaplan-Weinger

Publication date:

24 March 2010

Publisher

Channel View Publications

Dimensions:

210x148mm
6x8"

ISBN-13: 9781845411374

Official Tourism Websites: A Discourse Analysis Perspective investigates the construction and promotion of identity of tourist locales by the designers of the official websites for destinations such as Santiago de Compostela, Spain; the Baltic states of Latvia and Estonia; New Orleans, Louisiana and Gary, Indiana; Myanmar/Burma; US Sports Halls of Fame; and, in recognizing the influence and popularity of such sites, three websites parodying the imaginary nations of Phaic Tan, Molvania, and San Sombrero. Analysis addresses how tourism websites foster social action and, therefore, contribute to the (re)construction of nations and other communities by variably fostering re-imagination, rebirth, renaissance, promotion and caution, and patriotism. Recognizing that tourism texts can function to both construct and embody identity for their respective locales, this investigation employs critical discourse analysis, multimodal discourse analysis, and visual semiotic analysis in the investigation of web texts and images.

1. Introduction
2. Identity and the World Wide Web Methods of Analysis
3. Narrative of the Nation: Baltic Tourism Websites in the Post-Soviet Context
4. The Tourist as Pilgrim, The Pilgrim as Tourist: Santiago de Compostela
5. Rebirth of an American City: New Orleans, Louisiana
6. '100 Years…Steel Strong': Forging an Identity for Gary, Indiana
7. The Tourist as Patriot: Sports and Nationalism
8. Balancing Promotion and Warning in the Construction of National Identity in Travel Guides: The Case of Myanmar/Burma
9. Constructing Self vs. Other in Parodic Travel Guides
10. Conclusion: On Tourism, Identity, and the World Wide Web

The discourse of tourism is a discourse of identity construction, promotion, contestation and acceptance. It is a discourse created through linguistic and visual texts and increasingly today, through the internet on a whole range of travel-related websites, including those of destination management organisations and a plethora of social networking sites. In this immensely informative and provocative text Rick Hallett and Judith Kaplan-Weinger take to task the role of the World Wide Web in mediating the construction of identities. Theirs is a timely and thought-provoking book which makes a major contribution to the task of making the meanings of these sites transparent through discourse analysis. The book is scholarly yet hugely readable and well-illustrated; it readily communicates the authors’ command of their subject.