The Wake of Modernistic Tourism in the Kingdom: A Multimodal Analysis of Online Discourse

Abstract

Background: Suadi Vision 2030 is an embodiment of a futuristic vision that aims at attaining significant social, cultural, and economic advancement in the Kingdom within the ongoing decade. And revolutionizing the tourism industry is one of the key components in the Suadi Vision for not only developing a sustainable economic source but also representing the versatility of the Saudi landscape and culture to the outer world. Problem: However, to attract tourists from around the globe, it is pertinent to clearly and persuasively elucidate what the country has to offer in terms of its tourist attractions, facilities, and activities. For the said purpose, different government and private-run websites provide prime information and description of the tourism opportunities in KSA. Aim: The current project aimed at analyzing the effectiveness of linguistic and semiotic representation of the content provided online to attract foreign tourists specifically. Frameworks: The multimodal framework was adopted to analyze the selected content. To evaluate the written discourse, Fairclough’s critical analysis consisting of “description, interpretation, and explanation of text” (p. 109) was implemented. Similarly, to scrutinize the images ‘Grammar of Images’ model promulgated by Kress & van Leeuwen (2006) was employed. Results: The findings of the study demonstrate that the website discourse effectively presents the Kingdom as a modern, multicultural, and rich landscape for prospective tourists. Also, the imagery and discursive strategies applied positively exhibit the vitality and vivacity of Saudi culture, lifestyle and tourism experience through complementing each other effectively. Cognitive value: Saudi Vision 2030 has widely been analyzed employing multiple methods and frameworks. However, there is a dearth of research focusing on analyzing the use of discourse as well as images by employing a multimodal framework. This study contributes by addressing this gap in the existing research.