Language and Cross-Cultural Communication in Travel and Tourism

Book excerpt: "This new volume attempts to illustrate how one of the rapidly evolving industries in the world-travel and tourism-has transcended its immediate economic concerns and has become a major signifier for cultural patterns and cross-cultural communications. It discusses the theoretical and scholarly undertakings of tourism that have steadily grown and how the function of language has become the subject of scrutiny in the context of intellectual deliberation vis-áa-vis travel and tourism. Grouped in three sections-Cross-cultural Communication in Travel and Tourism, Narrative of Place and Space, and Travel and Tourism Industry, this volume cross-examines culture and intercultural facets of tourism interactions and focuses on culture as a process or phenomenon engaged in or enacted on by individuals. Drawing on discourse analytics and ethnographic approaches, this volume brings together perspectives from the lived experiences of residents, hosts, and ethnographers to explore the extent to which linguistic and cultural differences are identified, constructed, negotiated, and maintained in tourism encounters. The chapters in this book incorporate global case studies and demonstrate the application of theoretical discourses rooted in various disciplines such as marketing, management processes, literature, media studies, and linguistics. The volume draws on insights from those working across a range of geographic contexts and explores the interplay of these issues in various languages and how ethnic language can be used in tourism interactions. The book also addresses the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic on the tourism industry and the simultaneous rise in the influence of social media in the cultural semioscape of tourism"--