Abstract
The government of Brunei Darussalam has focused more on developing its tourism industry in recent years. One of its primary clusters for tourism development, as stated in the government’s five-year tourism master plan (2012-2016), is Kampong Ayer or the Water Village. The current tourism master plan (2016-2020) also highlights Kampong Ayer as Brunei’s main attraction site in the country. This paper aims to discuss how Kampong Ayer has been appropriated into a tourist attraction site as represented in printed tourism promotional materials, i.e., tourism brochures, guidebooks, pocket guides, and tourist maps. This paper focuses on linguistic cues, and visual representations of Kampong Ayer and the analysis is based on using a multimodal discourse framework. Findings show that the Water Village has been appropriated for tourism consumption through six main themes: i) history; ii) modern and traditional lifestyle; iii) size of Kampong Ayer; iv) must-do’s and highlights list; v) spatial division of land and water; and vi) Kampong Ayer’s links to other tourist sites. Keywords: Kampong Ayer, appropriation, tourism promotional materials, linguistic cues, visual images
Highlights
The Italian scholar and traveler, Antonio Pigafetta, dubbed Kampong Ayer as “Venice of the East” when he visited Brunei in the 16th century. It was through Pigafetta’s written historical accounts, among others, which confirms Kampong Ayer to be one of the wealthiest Malay kingdoms during the 16th and 17th centuries
The set of data used for this research includes tourism promotional materials collected from various travel agencies, tour operators and government agency which totals up to twenty items
In conclusion, Kampong Ayer has been selectively portrayed in the promotional materials through six recurring themes
Summary
The Italian scholar and traveler, Antonio Pigafetta, dubbed Kampong Ayer as “Venice of the East” when he visited Brunei in the 16th century. It was through Pigafetta’s written historical accounts, among others, which confirms Kampong Ayer (which was equated to Brunei) to be one of the wealthiest Malay kingdoms during the 16th and 17th centuries. Modernity cannot be denied; as with time, this historical residential area has gone through major changes while still preserving its traditional atmosphere. Making it one of Brunei's favorite tourism spots. Kampong Ayer has been used or appropriated in almost all of tourism promotional brochures on Brunei Darussalam due to its status as Brunei's most iconic national landmark
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