Towards a holistic view of tourism discourse

Abstract

This introduction advocates a holistic view of tourism communication, based on the principles underlying "linguistic ecology", as proposed by Einar Haugen (1972). Specifically, it focuses on the intimate correlation between the language of tourism and the sociological and psychological environment in which tourist messages are expressed and conveyed. Following Mark Garner (2005), starting from the four common features of any ecological thought (holistic, dynamic, interactive and situated), we highlight some significant perspectives from which the tourist space and the tourist/traveller's identity are constructed discursively, i.e., the ideological and socio-economic, the cognitive-emotional or the digital outlooks.