Linguistic Landscape of Tourist Spaces from 2014 to 2022: A Review

Abstract

This paper reviews studies on the linguistic landscape (LL) field concerning tourism between 2014 and 2022 to offer insights into the development of LL, particularly in the tourism context. Furthermore, the review provides examples of using LL as a research tool and a data source to address several issues in tourist spaces. There has been a growing trend in the study of the written text in tourist spaces as it encompasses a wide variety of creative theoretical and empirical research, dealing with themes like multilingualism, multimodality, language policy, linguistic diversity, and minority languages, among others. This review examines past studies that aided in opening up this area of research and outlines some emerging themes that serve as a springboard for others to consider. Relevant articles for this review were identified from two leading databases: Google Scholar and Academia. Three main steps were involved in this review method: identification, screening, and eligibility processes. The selected articles revealed two main emerging themes that are prominently discussed in the area of tourism which are language dominance and multilingualism. Overall, LL research's emerging themes help deepen the understanding of language(s) use in tourist spaces, especially in multilingual settings. The review demonstrates the potential for LL studies in areas such as tourist space, pedagogy, inclusion, and public awareness.