Differentiating Destinations in the Language of Tourism: Harmless Hype or Promotional Irresponsibility?

Abstract

Within the disciplines of sociology and anthropology, the main theoretical advances provided by the perspectives of authenticity, strangerhood, play and conflict have been made with respect to understanding tourists and how they are attracted by real or imaginary differences. However, it is only when a linguistic paradigm is adopted that it can be more clearly seen that the problem for the tourism industry resides in how to market such differences credibly and effectively in a competitive situation. Here, six non-mutually exclusive strategies have been inductively identified from the publicity material of several National Tourism Organizations: “vive la difference”, “the one and only”, “so much more”, “land of contrasts”, “super superlatives” and the “distinctive blend”. Employed separately and in combination, it must be asked if their continuous use simply constitutes harmless hyperbole or whether it is more of an ethical question of promotional irresponsibility.