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Part of
Engagement in Professional Genres
Edited by Carmen Sancho Guinda
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 301] 2019
► pp. 341–358

Chapter 18
Engagement of readers/customers in the discourse of e-tourism promotional genres

| IULMA (Interuniversity Institute of Modern Applied Languages), Universitat de València, Spain

Tourism 2.0 involves direct e-communication between travellers and the tourism industry, and needs websites that attract customers. Recent research in this field (Austin 2009; Brodie, Hollebeek et al. 2011) suggests that they must also include the co-creation of values that align with the customer in some way. Their design must be persuasive yet trustworthy. This is partly achieved through discursive strategies that reflect the voice of the institution or business (author), and others that engage the customer (reader). This study discusses engagement as a key concept in promotional websites (hotels, tourist guides, etc.) from interpersonality, based on the cometval corpus. Its conclusions note significant and controversial differences on how these e-genres are construed in English and Spanish, with societal implications.

Keywords: engagement, promotional genres, interpersonality, tourism discourse, e-genres
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Engagement in social and professional settings: What research in marketing and tourism suggests
  • 3.Engagement and genre in social discourses
    • 3.1Engagement in academic discourse
    • 3.2Engagement in legal, corporate and professional discourses
  • 4.Engagement in promotional e-tourism genres in English and Spanish
    • 4.1Engagement marker categories in English and Spanish promotional e-tourism genres (cometval corpus)
  • 5.Discussion and conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 24 April 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.301.18sua
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