This book offers a systematic, interdisciplinary investigation into the language of persuasion in contemporary tourism discourse, with a focus on English-language travel boards' use of Instagram and official websites.
Drawing on Corpus Linguistics and Systemic Functional Linguistics, it examines how linguistic and visual resources are strategically deployed to construct idealized representations of destinations and evoke positive emotional responses. Through a multimodal analysis, the volume explores recurring linguistic patterns, the role of platform-specific dissemination, and how discourse constructs power dynamics between destinations and prospective tourists. By combining empirical methods with critical discourse and sociological perspectives, the book sheds light on how emotionally charged, consumer-oriented narratives may reinforce broader socioeconomic inequalities and contribute to unsustainable travel practices. In doing so, it contributes to ongoing debates on digital persuasion and literacy, media framing, and the ideological function of tourism communication, recommending approaches to integrate data-driven, highly persuasive strategies and eco-sensitive narratives.
This book will be of interest to scholars and students in discourse analysis, digital communication, tourism studies, marketing, and linguistics, as well as professionals interested in the mechanisms behind strategic, promotional narratives and their potential impact on social and environmental sustainability.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"This volume makes a valuable and innovative contribution to the study of tourist discourse through a robust multimodal analysis. By examining websites and Instagram accounts of three major English-speaking tourism entities, the author demonstrates methodological rigor, combining detailed manual annotation with advanced statistical tools rooted in systemic-functional linguistics and visual design. The development of a comprehensive model for analyzing linguistic and visual choices offers fresh insights into how digital tourism strategies shape perceptions and evoke emotions. Well-structured, original, and highly relevant to contemporary digital communication research, this work significantly advances understanding in tourism and multimodal studies."
- Prof. Marina Bondi, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
"This book is a groundbreaking contribution to the study of multimodal discourse in digital tourism communication. With an impressive command of Systemic Functional Linguistics and social semiotics, the volume offers a theoretically rich and empirically rigorous analysis of how tourism authorities construct meaning across Instagram and web platforms. The approach is methodologically sophisticated, blending meticulous manual annotation with robust statistical techniques to reveal linguistic and visual patterns in promotional discourse. What sets this volume apart is its careful integration of qualitative interpretation and quantitative analysis-an approach that not only unveils the persuasive strategies employed by tourism brands but also models best practices for future multimodal research. Particularly innovative is the adaptation of visual and verbal resources to the genre-specific affordances of Instagram, shedding light on the semiotic work that goes into crafting idealized tourist experiences. This is an essential work for scholars in discourse analysis, tourism studies, and digital humanities: its clarity, analytical depth, and originality make it both a reference point and a source of inspiration for ongoing inquiries into digital genres and the multimodal construction of meaning."
- Prof. Stefania M. Maci, University of Bergamo
"The Language of Persuasion on Instagram by Elena Mattei provides a brilliant multimodal corpus analysis of digital tourism discourse. This volume explores convincingly the manipulative communication strategies adopted by the official tourism boards of Ireland, Canada and Australia on their Instagram accounts and company websites.
If the extensive and thorough bibliographical references reflect the interdisciplinary, layered and fluid scenario of contemporary tourism studies, Mattei's robust methodological framework, which integrates tools from systemic functional linguistics and visual semiotics, accounts for the multimodal meaning-making in tourism destination branding. The present study is also notable for its remarkable corpus compilation, accurate text annotation, and original discussion of results. Overall, this book offers essential reading for researchers and students in the fields of applied linguistics, tourism studies, and communication and media studies."
- Sabrina Francesconi - University of Trento
Reihe
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
Zielgruppe
Für höhere Schule und Studium
Postgraduate
Illustrationen
44 s/w Abbildungen, 22 s/w Photographien bzw. Rasterbilder, 22 s/w Zeichnungen, 33 s/w Tabellen
33 Tables, black and white; 22 Line drawings, black and white; 22 Halftones, black and white; 44 Illustrations, black and white
Maße
Höhe: 229 mm
Breite: 152 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-032-93748-9 (9781032937489)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Elena Mattei is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Bergamo and Adjunct Professor of English Language at Ca' Foscari, University of Venice. She holds a PhD in English Multimodal Linguistics for Tourism and has worked on the National Research Project DIETALY (Destination Italy in English Translation and Language over the Years) in collaboration with the Italian National Tourist Board. With a keen interest in environmental protection and responsible travel, she is currently working on data-driven, computational methods and semiotic theories to foster innovative solutions for regenerative tourism promotion on social media, aiming to create practical guidelines and visual-linguistic taxonomies that help reshape tourism narratives toward greater social and ecological integrity.
Introduction, 1: NeoFirthian Approaches for Digital Discourse Research, 2: Research design, 3: Results, 4: Discussion, 5: Connecting the dots: Annotating and analyzing visual corpora by adapting the Grammar of Visual Design, Conclusion, Appendix, Index
