What No Pasties!? Reading the Cornish Tourism Brochure

ABSTRACT

This article introduces a conceptual model for the analysis of tourism marketing texts, and provides a social semiotic reading of the Visit Cornwall brochure to demonstrate how the model may be applied. The conceptual model provides an insight into how the cultural meaning of tourism moves from culturally constituted world of tourism marketing, to that of the individual consumer. By understanding how individuals interpret marketing texts, and how they relate to the signs and images used within tourism marketing, it is possible to develop coherent strategies that are tailored to market segments or groups, while identifying the significance, ethics, and validity of the discourses utilized within contemporary tourism marketing practices.

Keywords:

• Social semiotics
• communication
• escape
• sign
• tourism brochures
• interpretation
• power