Through the Eyes of the Tourist: The Language of Tourism From the Traveller's Perspective

The Language Of Tourism As A Specialised Domain

Having done in-depth research in the context of Spanish for Tourism for the past few years, these researchers follow Aguirre (2012), Calvi (2005) and Moreno & Tuts (2004) in envisaging LT as a broad area which is double sided: it comprehends the language needed by a tourist to get by in most common communicative situations (hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, etc.) and on the other hand it necessitates specialised linguistic knowledge specific to the professional sector, understood as those who will have to use the language as part of their job. It is only recently that LT has been considered a specialised language, through the work of authors such as Calvi (2005, 2006, 2010, 2016) classifying it as an autonomous field, opposed to the previous classification as merely a sub-type of Business (Moreno & Tuts, 2004; Calvi, 2006; Pinilla, 2012). For the authors of this paper LT should clearly be included within Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP henceforth), following Gotti’s enlightening definition of specialised discourse as “the specialist use of language in contexts which are typical of a specialised community stretching across the academic, the professional, the technical and the occupational areas of knowledge and practice” (2008: 24) . LT would fit within the latter. It is also essential to cite Hutchinson & Waters’ understanding of ESP (English for Specific Purposes) and their focus on learner need, which would also apply to LT, regardless of the language: