Refiguring Asianness in tourism advertising

Abstract

Identities are often reshaped, in translanguaging contexts, to fit narratives circulating in target environments. Analysis of parallel tourism data shifts is a rich resource for tracing how space identities may travel cross-culturally. The study tackles representations of Asianness as manifested through English and Greek parallel texts, in tourism advertising, to reveal locally internalized ‘speaker positionings’ which significantly affect the ‘package of identity features’ attributed to a destination. The analysis first takes into consideration the visibility of Asian spaces in the Greek press and points to features which may allow a unified account of media and travel discourses, drawing on tourism theoretical accounts. Discursively conveyed representations of Asian spaces are assumed to immensely affect perception of Asian destinations and sensibilities in audiences.