The aim of this PhD project is to explore the language of tourism within the specific context of computer-mediated communication (CMC). Research will be based on various case studies. Consequently, different media where tourism discourse can be found will be studied, for instance: travel platforms as TripAdvisor and Booking.com, touristic apps or social media as Twitter or Facebook.
The investigation will primarily focus on pragmalinguistic features of tourism discourse, and different types of communication concerning travelling will be analysed, spanning from positive and/or negative reviews of hotels, to the interactions between professional of the touristic sector and tourists themselves (e.g. within a ‘rapport management framework’).
The present research will focus on Italian, English and Dutch, pointing out both language-specific traits and, at the same time, shared tendencies that emerge in the three languages under examination within tourism discourse, thus adding a cross-cultural dimension to the study.