Generic integrity and innovation in tourism texts in English

Sabrina Francesconi

Underscoring the global reach and social pervasiveness of tourism dynamics, Generic Integrity and Innovation in Tourism Texts analyses contemporary tourism discourse in English with a focus on generic configurations. It introduces the tension tourism text genres show between integrity and innovation. Accordingly, these genre instances rely on integrity, namely on structural and stylistic conventions and constraints. At the same time, they are constantly experiencing innovations, both of spontaneous and induced nature. New, often hybrid genres keep accessing the tourism discourse system and challenging taxonomic and cataloguing frames. In particular, the advent and establishment of the Internet offer new opportunities of 2.0 C2C dialogue and trialogue like in the case of social networking sites, applications and wikis. In turn, modes and forms of exchange in traditional printed media like brochures, guides and catalogues are being challenged, reconfigured and redefined in light of participatory and interactive paradigms, multimodal semiosis, and multiple reading paths. Instances of tourism genres such as advertisements, souvenirs, postcards are then sometimes purposefully manipulated with creative, attractive and entertaining strategies. In order to discuss and exemplify such multifold dynamics, the volume specifically takes into account online diaries, travel guides and humorous postcards.