The aim of this chapter is to provide a classification of business tourism texts based on Kelly's taxonomy for general tourist texts. The authors include examples of each of them so that the reader can have a wider perspective of the kind of texts that they can find in this field. The authors specifically study texts that are part of the promotional material from the public and private sector with real examples to illustrate the study. This will help readers understand the kind of text they are referring to in order to set the basis of what they will find in the following chapters. Finally, a classification of texts that are informative for exhibitors and companies will be provided in general terms but will not be specifically studied to limit the scope of the practical cases and examples provided in the later on in the book.
TopIntroduction: Business Tourism Texts
The addresser of business tourist texts comes both from the public and the private sector. From the public sector, town halls and governments, among others, attract the attention of businesses by presenting the qualities of a city or town to carry out conferences or fairs through promotional material, that is, brochures, leaflets or even complete guides. From the private sector, there are companies, such as hotels, restaurants or transport businesses, that focus on businessmen and women as potential target customers. As opposed to Kelly’s classification of tourist texts, the taxonomy that we here present includes a wider section of informative texts, mainly because the addressee of these texts are businesspeople (exhibitors, companies and organizers) who need as much information as possible in order to develop their economic activity easily and visitors who want to take advantage of the fairs and conferences they attend to. As stated by Cook et al. (2010) these texts pretend to meet the needs, demands and requirements of business travelers.
In order to explain our classification in depth we will analyze each section and include some examples. These will help us exemplify business tourist texts through the inclusion of brochures, leaflets or guides found on the Internet. The reason why we have decided to study those documents that were born as paper documents but that have, due to the advances of new technologies, moved to the Internet is that, as stated by Kang and Yu (2011, p. 129), “the popularization of the Internet makes tourism websites a perfect approach to gain more traveling information and attract more potential tourists”. Moreover, the large amount of information concerning tourism found online is another reason to analyze these texts. Finally, the capacity to constantly update the information and the congresses’ dates makes business digital tourist texts a great source of study and research.
- •
Promotional material from the public sector
- •
Promotional material from the private sector
- o
Accommodation
- o
Restaurants / catering
- o
Transport
- o
Leisure
- •
Promotional guides from public and private organizations
- •
Informative texts for exhibitors and companies
- •
From companies which organize congresses
- ▪
Rules & regulations
- ▪
Rates
- ▪
Forms
- •
Transport
- ▪
Venue services
- ▪
Security
- •
Evacuation plans
- •
From translation services
- •
From authorities
- o
Customs
- o
Police
- o
From venues
- o
From leisure companies
- o
From organizers
- •
Guides
- •
Informative texts for visitors
- •
From transport services
- •
From catering companies
- •
From companies which organize congresses
- o
Parking
- o
Calendars
- o
Transport
- •
Informative texts for organizers
- •
Catering
- •
Audiovisual
- •
Media & Branding
- •
IT and connectivity
- •
Logistics
- •
Cleaning and Waste Management
- •
Space Divisions
- •
Utilities
- •
Rigging
- •
Transport
- •
Security
- •
Translation services
- •
Steward & Stewardess
- •
Customs