role of humour in tourism discourse

Abstract

This paper focuses on the role of humour as a persuasive tool of tourism destinations' communication and as a means of creating the destination’s image and uniqueness in tourism discourse. According to Aristotle’s appeals, humour belongs to pathos, which is - besides ethos and logos – an essential means of persuasion in successful communication. In the introductory part, the paper offers a short theoretical insight into the functions of tourism discourse and the role of humour in it, further on some examples of online promotional texts about Montenegro are analysed and discussed using discourse analysis. The results, presented in the conclusion, confirm that successful promotion can only occur through the efficient use of tourism discourse which addresses the needs of potential tourists and that humorous texts about destinations are appealing to readers. Based on the analysis, it can be established that branding of tourism destinations, products and services with elements of humour may be outstanding in positive ways, and consequently employed in promotional texts as a successful means of communication.