THE VERBAL MEANS OF PERSUASION IN ENGLISH TOURISM DISCOURSE

Abstract

The paper is aimed at identifying and systematizing some persuasive tactics and techniques that are efficient in the tourism discourse. This analysis is a case study of the website travel.usnews.com. Tourism is more than just a leisure or professional activity – it can be considered the representation and the discovery of the cultural identity of a country. The words selected to promote a tourist destination as well as accompanying images and the way these two modes of communication are organized in a website, brochure or guidebook inevitable reflect more than just a promotional aim. They mainly represent those social and cultural choices which are characteristic of each country and of each culture and which are, for this reason, more than worth investigating. When analyzing persuasion in English tourism texts, the researcher finds out and describes the following techniques – appealing to authority and trust, appealing to credibility, appealing to emotions, egotargeting and appealing to uniqueness of the tourist product.