Representations of nature in ecotourism advertisements

Abstract

Employing the appraisal theory and the system of transitivity, the study explores representations of nature and the human-nature relationship in ecotourism advertisements on the website Responsible Travel. It is revealed that a number of empowering discursive devices with regard to nature are employed in the data, including the allocation of the agentive role in constructive processes to inanimate natural elements, the adoption of the activation of tokens and the activation of experiences, and celebratory portrayals of nature as an aesthetically pleasing artwork and a spectacle of supernatural qualities. Yet, it is argued that the celebration and the empowerment of nature in the ecotourism advertisements tend to take place at the expense of the reproduction of the human-nature dichotomy, portraying nature as the Other.