A.D. MDLXII
U N I VE RS I T À D IPARTIMENTO
DI
D E G LI S TU DI D I S AS S A RI S CIENZE U MANISTICHE E S OCIALI ___________________________
CORSO DI LAUREA IN SCIENZE DEL TURISMO CULTURALE
IMAGES AND CULTURES IN WEBSITES: THE PROMOTION OF HOTELS ACROSS THE WORLD
Relatore: PROF. ANTONIO PINNA
Correlatore: PROF. BAINGIO PINNA
Tesi di Laurea di: ALESSANDRA USAI
ANNO ACCADEMICO 2011/2012
Un particolare ringraziamento va al mio Relatore, il Professor Antonio Pinna, per il suo prezioso aiuto e la sua disponibilitĂ . Vorrei inoltre ringraziare il Professor Baingio Pinna per gli utili consigli e la gentilezza che ha sempre mostrato. Infine, un sentito ringraziamento alla Professoressa Monica Farnetti e a tutti i Docenti e Professori che ho avuto l'occasione di incontrare in questi tre anni.
1
INDEX INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 3 CHAPTER 1. How is an ideal hotel website structured? ................................................. 6 1.1 Why is a website necessary? The role of e-commerce in tourism promotion 6 1.2 Websites and corporate image........................................................................ 7 1.3 The key features of a successful website........................................................ 8 − 1.3.1 Pattern and graphics........................................................................ 9 − 1.3.2 Users’ key website areas............................................................... 10 − 1.3.3 The writing of texts ...................................................................... 12 − 1.3.4 The choice of images.................................................................... 13 − 1.3.5 The use of videos.......................................................................... 15 CHAPTER 2. The language of tourism: how do visual and verbal techniques work? .. 16 2.1 What is the language of tourism? ................................................................. 16 2.2 The techniques of the language of tourism................................................... 18 CHAPTER 3. How do hotels employ the strategies of the language of tourism to create their websites? ................................................................................................................ 39 3.1 Palmeraie Golf Palace - Marrakech, Morocco ............................................. 40 3.2 Cristallo Hotel Spa & Golf - Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy ............................... 44 3.3 Le Touessrok - Trou d'Eau Douce, Mauritius .............................................. 49 3.4 Taj Lake Palace - Udaipur, India.................................................................. 52 3.5 Rome Cavalieri Hotel - Rome, Italy............................................................. 55 3.6 The Cove Atlantis - Paradise Island, Bahamas............................................. 59 3.7 The Oberoy Lombok - Lombok, Indonesia .................................................. 62 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................. 64 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 74
2
INTRODUCTION Objective of the study The purpose of this thesis is to identify the various features that a hotel website must present in order to have a good impact and be effective so as to make the potential tourist have a positive impression. Since the Internet is getting more and more essential in the daily life of everyone, having a well structured website may make a difference between being considered by the potential customer as a possible choice and being rejected since the website does not provide a positive impression on the user. There are many studies that illustrate the best techniques in the field of Web Design, however not all the strategies can be employed to create a hotel website: during the draft of this thesis it has been hard to find a guide specifically dedicated to the best way of structuring a website for a hotel company and the strategies that can be employed. It is not easy to determine which elements and features make a homepage effective or not: the aim of this thesis is to collect, according to reliable sources, the best techniques concerning each element present on a website, and attempt to give a guide that could be helpful when structuring a hotel website.
The sources of information The authors of the studies taken into consideration when drafting this thesis have all a remarkable experience in the fields of tourism and communication. For example, Graham Dann in his work analyses the language of tourism in detail, illustrating all the visual and verbal techniques used in promotional material. His essays have been quoted in many other research studies and are considered a very reliable source. Among other researchers, Gaia Marotta has been commissioned by The Azienda di Promozione Turistica of Trentino Alto Adige to collect the research studies made about the motivations and the thought processes that induce people to travel, and revise the previous clichĂŠs about tourism in the light of these new results. Francesco Giordana is an Italian journalist, researcher and university professor, and is an expert in the field of corporate communication, with a specialization on tourist companies.
3
Claudia Zarabara is an Italian expert of Web Marketing and online communication, and collaborates since years with many hotel companies. Betsy Bender Stringam and John Gerdes Jr have published an article in the prestigious Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, launched in 2010 with the aim of providing to the industrial world the tools discovered through researches and studies that may be fundamental in the practice of the management of a company. The Pallasart Web Design Company is specialised in creating powerful websites since 1996 and many of the websites created by this company have won important prizes and awards because of their effectiveness. Finally, the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) is an association that provides tools and expertise for hotels, in order to improve their results and help them from the communication to the sale of the service, and is globally recognised for its helpful action in providing the needed knowledge to hotel industries.
Contents of the work This work is divided into three chapters. Chapter 1 deals with the structure of a hotel website, all the elements which it can not miss and their characteristics in order to enforce the impression of an effective website through the influence that suitable elements exert among themselves. Chapter 2 illustrates the various techniques making part of the language of tourism that can be employed in order to improve and make the communication from the website to the potential customer more effective, illustrating both techniques for the direct communication and other techniques used in order to convey implicit messages. Furthermore, it analyses the strategies employed to influence and please the expectations of the user, even those that he/she does not know yet. Chapter 3 applies the knowledge previously illustrated in order to analyse six homepages and part of the websites of luxury hotels, with the aim of picking out which techniques have been employed and if they have been applied in the correct way described by the experts. The final analysis is dedicated to a homepage that seems to be less effective if compared with the others, and a possible explanation of this impression will be provided.
4
Method of analysis The homepages of hotels analysed have all been selected from the site of Five Star Alliance1, a online travel agency recognized and awarded by many important authorities in the field of tourism, and by newspapers as the New York Times and the London Times. All of the hotels selected are five-star hotels, and this standard has been adopted because all these facilities have the economic opportunity to access the best and stateof-the-art theories and studies about improving all the aspects of their company, including Web Marketing and tourist communication. Hence the structuring of their websites is not accidental, but carefully prepared and laboured by a team, also outsider, specialised in Web Design and communication, while lower-level hotels may not have all the economic chances to get to such innovative knowledge. The final selection of these seven hotel homepages followed a random criterion in order to analyse hotels located in different countries across the world. However, a special attention was paid to Italy, since two of the analysed websites have been randomly selected from this country.
Expected results and possible future applications The aim of this work is to verify whether an initial collection of features that the literature on the language of promotional tourism and web designing has identified as essential and effective is viable when actual examples of hotel homepages are examined. Possible future applications of a revised model of essential, likely persuasive features and strategies regard the creation of efficient homepages and websites that are effective in drawing potential customers' attention and, possibly, influencing their behaviours.
1
Five Star Alliance, website: http://www.fivestaralliance.com/ (visited on 10th September 2012).
5
CHAPTER 1. How is an ideal hotel website structured? This chapter deals with the features that render a website necessary for a hotel in the contemporary world and the critical elements it must possess in order to be successful.
1.1 Why is a website necessary? The role of e-commerce in tourism promotion Which are the features that should lead a tourist facility such as a hotel to create its own website? There are two main reasons: firstly, in this way the hotel has the possibility to communicate directly with the clientele, providing information about its company and its facilities, and secondly the website is an opportunity to acquire new customers. According to some statistics2, the number of people in the world that use the Web to plan trips is constantly growing, and this is due to the fact that the Internet offers significant advantages to customers: the most significant is certainly that of giving information. If compared with other information materials like brochures or catalogues offered in travel agencies, the Internet offers the best type of service in terms of information, both for its quantity and variety; the users in fact can view a higher number of photos than any brochure can possibly have, explore virtual tours, and obtain detailed information about the various sites, and if they reckon all that unsatisfactory, they can contact the facility management via e-mail and receive a quick answer that clarifies all their doubts. A fundamental source of information3 is provided by the opinion of other users who already experienced the same service that the user is considering: there is no better recommendation than that made by people that have already tried what one wants to purchase, and this is proved by the constant increase and by the success of the portals devoted to the exchange of opinions (e.g. TripAdvisor). In addition, the Web's relevance is not limited to the possibility of easily finding information, but also concerns the purchase of a product or service: a survey made by
2
Cit. in C. Zarabara, Strategie di Web Marketing per il settore turistico alberghiero, 2009, trad. ingl., Prefazione. 3 C. Zarabara, Strategie di Web Marketing per il settore turistico alberghiero, 2009, trad. ingl., p. 3.
6
Merrill Lynch4 in 2008 showed that almost 40% of all the hotel bookings was made online, and this trend seems to have grown constantly since. Furthermore, the Internet also offers the possibility of eliminating the intermediaries, whether travel agencies or intermediation websites, whose presence entails a cost increase: a recent survey5 demonstrates some decrease in bookings on intermediation websites, in favour of bookings directly made on hotel websites, with an economic benefit both for the customers and for the hotels. In this sense, the importance of the Web grows continually: the use of Internet is more and more widespread, both geographically and from the viewpoint of the customers’ age, and the diffusion of broad band connections leads up to a constant increase of buyers of products and services by means of the Internet, including hotel services. One can hence conclude that for a tourist facility owning a website promoting its services is paramount as it allows a direct contact with the clientele and provides satisfactory information in terms of quantity, quality and availability.
1.2 Websites and corporate image The website of a tourist facility has the purpose of communicating with its potential users and conveying its distinctive features; this provides the input that users elaborate to form their own perceptions of, say, a given hotel. As a result of a survey, Gaston Le Blanc and Nha Nguyen6, members of the Business Administration Department at Moncton's University, Canada, have singled out some elements of the corporate image that turned out to be crucial for the perception that a user has about any hotel and, above all, these elements prove to be discriminating when the user must choose among several competitors. The most significant features that influence a user's perception are: •
the quality of the service provided by the staff, which must be kind, willing and well-groomed;
•
the quality of the food served by the hotel restaurant;
•
an elegant atmosphere, with well furnished rooms;
4
Cit. in C. Zarabara, Strategie di Web Marketing per il settore turistico alberghiero, 2009, trad. ingl., Prefazione. 5 Cit. in C. Zarabara, Strategie di Web Marketing per il settore turistico alberghiero, 2009, trad. ingl., p. 4. 6 Cit. in G. Marotta, I moventi della vacanza, 1998, trad. ingl., pp. 17-20.
7
•
the hotel affiliation to a chain or an identifiable logo, a feature that reassures the user and serves as a guarantee about quality standards;
•
easy accessibility and good hotel location relative to the surrounding area.
These observations are particularly important to determine which features require special consideration and care when constructing a hotel website, so that the users may have a positive perception of the hotel. An additional aspect that must be taken into account when talking about hotel websites is time: potential customers elaborate their first impression about the site in just 5 seconds, as affirmed by Mike Staniford7. The site has therefore to be structured so that the elements that are visible in such a narrow time span are the most suitable to convey the image that the hotel wants to give about itself. In the light of this insight, the role of the homepage becomes basic, inasmuch as it represents the first contact with the potential customer: only if the homepage turns out to be really effective and persuasive, the user will be convinced to spend some time surfing the site. Another basic element, that must never be overlooked, is the role of business competitors: a website must be effective and must be able to stand out, to compete in an environment in which the competitors' offers become more and more numerous and variegated. In this sense, it is plausible to assume that the aim of a website's homepage should be that of communicating a positive image, creating good expectations, and constituting a valuable element of differentiation compared with the competitors. In this way, a good homepage allows the company to be taken into consideration as a potential choice, avoiding to be rejected at once. Furthermore, it conveys a series of features that could prove to be crucial during the last stage of a customer's choice, enabling the hotel to perform better than its competitors.
1.3 The key features of a successful website The increasing use of the Web, and the growth of more and more discerning guests led researchers to make several studies on Web Marketing and Web Design, in order to identify the features that make a website interesting and captivating. What follows in this section is a list of the key features that a successful website should possess 7
Cit. in HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group, Effective Website Design, s.d., p. 6.
8
according to HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group, Betsy Bender Stringam and John Gerdes Jr, and Zarabara8.
1.3.1 Pattern and graphics The pattern and graphics of the site must enhance its contents and make the surfing easier: that is why knowledge of what can help to achieve this aim is basic. First of all, it is essential that the information of the homepage is contained in a single visual screen, so as not to compel the user to scroll down: in fact, according to some statistics9, only 10% of users scroll down the page, especially in case of homepages. If the contents cannot be reduced to a single screen, it is likely that the information outside the limits of the opening screen will not be read; in this case, a hierarchy of importance in the choice of information to be included has to be followed so as to place the most relevant on top and the least relevant at the bottom. When dealing with the positioning of the various elements on the homepage, another aspect that should be considered is that the top left-hand area of the display is the most visible10. This is surely the best area where to locate the most significant information, such as the hotel sign or logo. Users should be able to surf easily: this aim can be reached through the use of a particular kind of layout11: A “wide and shallow� layout displays a larger amount of items on the first tier of the navigation leaving only a handful of additional options in the subsequent levels of navigation. This method allows users to see most of the navigation options immediately without having to make multiple clicks to find the information they seek.
In fact, even if the homepage succeeds in convincing the user to carry on with the surfing, a too complex website, with long and unmarked paths, could discourage the
8
HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group, Effective Website Design, s.d.; B. Bender Stringam, J. Gerdes Jr, "Are pictures worth a thousand room nights? Success factors for hotel web site design" in Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, Vol. 1, 2010; C. Zarabara, Strategie di Web Marketing per il settore turistico alberghiero, trad. ingl., 2009. 9 Cit. in C. Zarabara, Strategie di Web Marketing per il settore turistico alberghiero, trad.ingl., 2009, p. 40. 10 C. Zarabara, Strategie di Web Marketing per il settore turistico alberghiero, trad.ingl., 2009, pp. 39-40. 11 HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group, Effective Website Design, s.d, p. 13.
9
surfer12. Hence it is necessary to indicate the followed path, so that the users can easily come back to the previous surfing level as soon as they want to. The surfing can also be facilitated by the subdivision of the information in the homepage in well distinct areas, so that the different typologies of users can easily find the type of information they are looking for13. For instance, a family with children that is planning a holiday at the seaside could be interested in knowing if there are recreational activities dedicated to kids, if in the hotel there is a swimming pool, if it is close to the beach and so on. The business customers, instead, could be interested in knowing which utilities are provided in the conference hall, how many people it can accommodate, if there is a shuttle service in the event that the hotel is within easy reach of an exhibition or a conference, and so on. To achieve this aim, effective labels are extremely important14, in fact Selecting the best words for the labels of navigational elements is a missioncritical activity. Labels applied to navigational features must be both clear and unambiguous so that users can quickly learn what resources are available and then navigate quickly and efficiently to access those resources. [...] Such labels should be clear and unambiguous. Hoteliers and travel professionals need to remember that common industry terms like “accommodations” are not always terms users use in common, everyday language.
Finally, easy surfing is also affected by the time needed to display the page on the customer’s browser: elaborate graphics may slow the loading of the site, so this should be conceived as a support, and not as an obstacle.
1.3.2 Users’ key website areas According to Zarabara15, there are some areas of a hotel website that are expected by the user, so they must always be present. The following is a list of the most common.
12
C. Zarabara, Strategie di Web Marketing per il settore turistico alberghiero, trad.ingl., 2009, p. 30. 13 C. Zarabara, Strategie di Web Marketing per il settore turistico alberghiero, trad.ingl., 2009, p. 29. 14 HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group, Effective Website Design, s.d, p. 12. 15 C. Zarabara, Strategie di Web Marketing per il settore turistico alberghiero, trad.ingl., 2009, p. 30-32.
10
•
About us. It is essential for prospective customers to know if it is a
family-run or a chain hotel, if the facility has been present for a long time or it has been created recently. •
Where we are. The are two main reasons to give this information: the
first one is to position the hotel in the surrounding area, indicating for instance what can be found in the neighbourhood in terms of attractions, services, shops and so on; the second one is to explain to the customer how to reach the hotel: this is the reason why inserting the full address and the geographical coordinates can be useful for those that want to use a satellite navigator. One can also insert a detailed description of the route, starting from the most relevant surrounding places, like airports, railway stations and motorways. Another possibility is that of inserting a simplified map of suitable dimensions, with the logo, address and phone numbers of the hotel, which customers can download and print. The importance of inserting a map on the website is also underlined by the HSMAI Internet Marketing Special Interest Group16: Maps have become an almost indispensible part of most hospitality, travel and tourism websites [...] (in fact) they provide essential geographic information that helps online visitors to make their travel plans [...]
•
The hotel. Another important section contains a description of the
facility, the rooms and their layout. It is important that the description is trustworthy and objective, so that it does not create false expectations that would bring an unsatisfied customer to provide a negative feedback. Another basic aspect is that text should not appear as a list of data (e.g. the number of rooms and their dimension), but as an occasion to communicate also in an emotive dimension, underlining the carefulness and professionalism that marks all the services offered in the hotel, and trying to convince its customers that it is better than the competitors. •
The rooms. Most potential customers reject hotels that do not show their
rooms on the website: in fact the user may think that if rooms are not shown, it is because they are unsatisfactory. Therefore showing the rooms is really important, as is also clearly indicating their name and typology, with a detailed description and a series of images that allow the customers to get the picture of what they are purchasing.
16
HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group, Effective Website Design, s.d, p. 19.
11
•
The services. In this section the user can find the list of the services
provided by the hotel. The description must be clear and precise, underlining what is included in the room fare and what is not. • Territory and free time. Here the user can find information about the surrounding area, as for instance leisure activities, natural, cultural, historical and artistic attractions and so on. •
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions). Customers really appreciate this
section, since it helps them to think things through. Furthermore, it is also helpful for the hotel staff, since in this way they are able to answer quickly to the most common questions, having less e-mails to answer to.
1.3.3 The writing of texts Texts contribute to the effective structure of both the homepage and the website, that is why their construction should be carefully considered, as suggested by Zarabara17. First of all, the author must decide on the appropriate register, whether formal or informal, which has to be adopted in all the sections, thus showing coherence among the various parts. It is also important to consider that reading on a display is more difficult than doing it on paper, hence it is good to use fonts, format and colours that guide the reader's eye through the main information, facilitating the process. Furthermore, all written sections should be clear and concise: the concept must be expressed in a simple way, in order to avoid confusion. Synthetic information is really important on websites: it is better to avoid long blocks of text, preferring short and well-structured written parts, as is the case for instance of bulleted lists and spaced paragraphs. However, information must be exhaustive and contain all the main details. It must always be remembered that the first impression about the website is elaborated by the users in a few seconds, so they will not read all the contents of the homepage. Consequently, the main information has to be clearly identifiable, using links that give more details about the topic, which the user may opt to follow. For a hotel, effective communication with foreign customers is also critical: therefore the site should be translated in the languages of the countries from which most
17
C. Zarabara, Strategie di Web Marketing per il settore turistico alberghiero, trad.ingl., 2009, p. 35-37.
12
of the clientele comes. Translation must be correct and precise, so it should be executed by an expert and professional translator. In addition, it is good to translate the whole site and not the single homepage or the page with the offers, to convey a professional image.
1.3.4 The choice of images The first thing to do is to think if the presence of images is really essential to make the site interesting, to capture the surfers’ attention and create a positive impression of the facility. The results obtained from a recent research study clearly demonstrate that it is so: in fact “the importance of having photos on the site was the most frequently mentioned factor in the participants' assessment of hotel web sites”18. Furthermore, the same study demonstrates the strategic importance of positioning the images on the website: it is not sufficient that they are present somewhere in the site, but it is essential that the user can find them already on the first surfing level, that is on the homepage. If the graphics of the homepage gives the impression of being too essential, and it is poor or completely lacks images, the user can decide to break off the netsurfing before having seen the whole site, with a disadvantage for the hotel. The authors of the study chose a respondent's comment19 to describe this phenomenon: [...] one respondent’s initial impression was that the site “wasn’t very appealing since it had almost no pictures or images of their hotels or even making a person want to go on vacation.” However, after exploring the site further, the same respondent reported that: "[. . .] they had very good photo tours of some of their properties, which is a huge thing with me, because I like to really see what I will be paying for".
This example, as the authors state, shows the central role of a pleasing and entertaining homepage, in order to entice the user to continue the surfing.
18
B. Stringam, J. Gerdes Jr, "Are pictures worth a thousand room nights? Success factors for hotel web site design" in Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, Vol. 1, 2010, p. 37. 19 B. Stringam, J. Gerdes Jr, "Are pictures worth a thousand room nights? Success factors for hotel web site design" in Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, Vol. 1, 2010, p. 38.
13
In addition, in the closing section of their article, Stringam and Gerdes20 comment: It would appear that respondents were not only looking for informational content when visiting a site, but were also expecting a visually interesting experience. The data from this study strongly suggest that the use of pictures and pictorial graphics on the home page and throughout the web site was a key element in both appeal and influence to purchase [...] In this study, respondents were strongly influenced by pictures – pictures of the hotels, people having fun or enjoying themselves, amenities, etc. The omission of pictures of the hotel rooms and other amenities negatively affected impressions of the hotels.
As it would be unwise to overlook the results of this study, one feels absolutely certain in claiming that images play a fundamental role in homepages and websites, one that is essentially phatic and persuasive. However, while this study deals with images in general, there is also another outstanding problem: what kind of images should be used on websites promoting hotels? Pictures play a prominent role in conveying impressions and giving information, also because they create expectations in the user. It is therefore necessary to have images that represent all the aspects of a hotel: the rooms, the common areas, the exterior of the building, the staff, the services provided, the surrounding area. That is why it is indispensable to resort to the services of a professional photographer to take pictures which have a strong impact on the users. As the HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group claims21: First impressions are highly important [...] and high quality photography is an essential element in creating a positive first impression with potential customers. Even the best description of a sweeping, tropical beach covered with white sand cannot provide the same amount of information, nor generate the same degree of emotional impact as a high-quality photographic image of that beach, shot at the right time of day, from the right vantage point, by a professional photographer.
Some studies22 further demonstrate that the combination of images and text is much more effective to draw users' attention than the two elements individually showed.
20
B. Stringam, J. Gerdes Jr, "Are pictures worth a thousand room nights? Success factors for hotel web site design" in Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, Vol. 1, 2010, p. 42. 21 HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group, Effective Website Design, s.d, p. 15. 22 Cit. in HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group, Effective Website Design, s.d., p. 15.
14
This means that a good homepage, and in general a good website, must show a balance between images and the associated text, so that through the union of these two elements both of them become more effective.
1.3.5 The use of videos If still images are essential to draw the attention of the users, the use of videos is a tool that is just as effective, if not a better one. According to a 2009 study by Google and OTX23 "57% of personal travelers and 66% of business travelers use online video when deciding on accommodations". Videos in fact create a particular dimension, and allow the surfers to be absorbed in the experience evoked by the hotel at a higher degree than a still picture. As a matter of fact, the video does not simply mirror reality but also involves the customer in an emotional dimension, becoming a very helpful element in order to make the website and the brand it promotes recognizable, thus giving it the edge over its competitors.
23
Cit. in HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group, Effective Website Design, s.d., p. 18.
15
CHAPTER 2. The language of tourism: how do visual and verbal techniques work? In this chapter the issue of defining the language of tourism will be dealt with. In particular, this part of the thesis will provide an analysis of the most important strategies that can be employed when communicating to potential customers, in order to make them have a positive impression of the hotel and possibly convince them to book a room.
2.1 What is the language of tourism? In his interesting book on the language of tourism, Graham M. S. Dann24 affirms that Via static and moving pictures, written texts and audio-visual offerings, the language of tourism attempts to persuade, lure, woo and seduce millions of human beings, and, in so doing, convert them from potential into actual clients. By addressing them in terms of their own culturally predicated needs and motivations, it hopes to push them out of the armchair and on to the plane − to turn them into tourists.
Therefore, it is possible to say that the language of tourism represents the set of multimedia techniques − texts, images, videos, sounds and so on − used in promotional material to make people want to travel and visit certain destinations. In this sense, it is easy to understand how important is to be able to master the leading rules of such an essential tool, also when creating a website for a hotel. First of all, the language of tourism is a variety of the common language, so it presents the same linguistic items as, say, General English. These are however employed differently in accordance with the communicative purposes of the genres which are most common in the particular domain of tourism. So, for example, if a travel guide wants to describe in detail a given monument, she can employ all the terms that 24
G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 2.
16
an art historian or an architect would use. She would also make use of words from everyday life in order to explain the meanings of specialized terms such as architrave, cross vault, transept, etc. In both cases the informative purpose of the communication plays a central role and determines the type of language employed. The linguist Roman Jakobson25 picked out six constitutive factors of verbal communication, to which six functions of the language correspond, as shown in Table 1. •
The expressive function refers to the sender of the message, and
expresses his opinions about the topic (for instance approval or disappointment). •
The conative function refers to the receiver of the message, and the
language here is used to influence attitudes and behaviours of the receiver. •
The referential function refers to the context, describing things or
giving information about the topic (for instance the description of a service).
Table 1. Jakobson's functions of language.
•
Factor
Function
Addresser
Emotive/expressive
Addressee
Conative
Context
Referential
Contact
Phatic
Code
Metalinguistic
Message
Poetic
The phatic function refers to the contact, and is used to create and
maintain a contact with the receiver of the message, but it is also used to draw the receiver's attention (for instance through sentences that involve directly the receiver, as "why don't you...?").
25
Cit. in G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 34.
17
•
The metalingual function refers to the code, and consists in the
language's ability to speak about itself (for example through questions of grammar). •
The poetic function refers to the message, and here the language is used
to convey particular meanings to the receiver which otherwise could not be effectively transmitted. This function entails the risk of conveying ambiguous messages. By knowing the working of the language, it is possible to analyse or produce effective tourist promotional material. Anyway, this knowledge alone is not sufficient to deeply understand the language of tourism: in fact there are some distinctive features that belong only to this specific kind of communication, which should be known and kept in mind during the planning stage of a website promoting a hotel.
2.2 The techniques of the language of tourism The language of tourism is a set of multimedia techniques. Visual and verbal elements showed on websites contain some of these special strategies in order to make the customer perceive the promoted destination as much desirable as possible. This section will illustrate some of the most common techniques used in promotional material, according to the HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group, Giordana, Dann and Marotta26.
Languaging The name of this technique comes from Potter27, who describes it as the use of real or fictitious foreign words so that the reader feels a sense of inferiority. It is really present in descriptions of gastronomic dishes and it can only be touched on, or carried to extremes. In the first case, there are some little explanations of the ingredients that compose the dish, while in the second one the writer does not even try to explain what the dishes are made of, in order to convey a message of 'authenticity' and 'immersion in the indigenous culture'.
26
HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group, Effective Website Design, s.d.; F. Giordana, La comunicazione del turismo, trad. ingl., 2004; G. Dann, The language of tourism,, 1998; G. Marotta, I moventi della vacanza, trad. ingl., 1998. 27 Potter, 1970, cit. in G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 183.
18
Comparison: the use of metaphors and similes Several commentators agree that similes and metaphors are used in the language of tourism in order to smooth over the feeling of unfamiliarity that a destination can convey to potential customers28. In many cases, comparison is used to describe a location as if it were like another location placed in a more familiar country (e.g. the city of Mopti is described as 'the Venice of Mali'), or also to depict destination people as if they were not so different from the tourist, trying to make the customer feel them as 'distant cousins'29. Since this technique serves to minimize the perception of strangeness and unfamiliarity, its use is more frequent as the cultural distance increases.
The use of imperatives One of the most popular verbal strategies is the use of imperatives in order to influence the behaviour of the potential customer30. Furthermore, very often the imperative is not directly used in the form of requests or orders (e.g. 'do something'), but the message is conveyed through the use of a question, e.g. 'can you do it now?', or through a message in which the action that the sender wants to have the receiver perform is not mentioned, e.g. in case the sender wants the receiver to have lunch, the sentence could be 'you look starving'.
Ego-targeting This technique is very effective and quite easy to find in most promotional material. The sender addresses directly the receiver, making him/her feel singled out from the crowd, making him/her feel special and unique. An example can be found in one advertisement promoting the Bahamas31: the headline reads 700 Islands. Plenty Of Front Row Seats followed by the copy 'We've saved a chair just for you on a pink sand beach next to the tiny cove [...]'.
28
Dann, 1992, cit. in G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 172. G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 172. 30 G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 79. 31 Cit. in G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 187. 29
19
As Dann says32, Here there are just two parties involved − 'we' and 'you'. The dialogue assumes the form of an intimate conversation as if 'you' were the only person in the world receiving VIP treatment and personalized service. [...] In spite of the fact that there is an inherent contradiction to the message, i.e. there seem to be hundreds of these front row seats for several 'you's', nevertheless you as an individual have been singled out from all the others for special treatment. 'Hey, you...yes, you', 'why don't you come over to the Bahamas and become someone special?'
Time Tourism is a travel through space, but it should not be forgotten that in a sense it is also a travel through time, 'from the everyday present into the past and more rarely, the future', as said by Cohen33. There are four main strategies employed in the language of tourism to exploit the topic of time as an attractive feature against the unsatisfactory present: •
Denial of time. Developed by Gottlieb34, this technique transforms the traveller, who must normally work and follow stressful timetables, into a person that has to do nothing but relax, sleep all day, have breakfast in bed and party every night. Here time meant as an element which could contribute to increase the level of stress does not exists: the only possible form of time is leisure and relax, and this conveys a feeling of freedom from all the obligations of everyday life.
•
Time as standing still. With this strategy, a place is described as if time is eternal35. Here time does not flow, everything seems to be stopped, the place is depicted as beautiful and desert, but safe. This technique is used in particular to advertise exotic destinations.
•
The past far superior to the present. In this case, the destination is described as if it gives the chance to go back in time, in the time of
32
G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 187. Cohen, 1986, cit. in G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 49. 34 Gottlieb, 1982, cit. in G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 50. 35 G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 51. 33
20
myths and legends36. The uncontaminated nature of the destination is showed as the alternative to the pressure of modern life, therefore Third World destinations are very suitable: they are depicted as empty, infinite, wild, places where the time has not affected life, where a person can feel free. This perception can be conveyed through images that show a return to the soil, or showing elderly people; furthermore, images might be accompanied by texts that refer to myths as the golden age, or the fount of youth, giving an idea of a place in which the potential tourist can find something that the modern development has removed forever from industrial countries. •
Pointing to the future. This is another technique used by the language of tourism to avoid the present, and presents a service as unconsumed37. A table rich in appetizing dishes, a fantastic multicoloured cocktail, a desert and sunny beach with its crystal clear waters, everything is presented as not yet tasted, as if waiting for the 'you' receiver of the message. Both images and texts present a situation in which something is about to happen, and nobody is around: the receiver of the message is hence enticed to step into the picture, and consume what is showed.
Magic Since the travel is, or should be, a fabulous experience, in promotional tourist language magic is frequently used38. In fact, through the charming power of magic, transformation and little miracles can happen without any other explanation than magic itself. Magic can transform all aspects of life, so it can affect time, personality and space: through the use of magic, desires can be fulfilled (i.e. the genie of the lamp), the future can be forecast (i.e. the crystal ball), people can be transformed into people other than themselves and so on.
36
G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, pp. 51-52. G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, pp. 53-54. 38 G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, pp. 55-62. 37
21
An example of magic transformation is given by Dann39: Whenever we see the well-dressed young male executive arm in arm with an equally sophisticated and attractive young woman, having just led her down the marble steps of a luxury hotel, we envy this couple for their obvious signs of success and affluence. Whether we identify with the man or the woman, we wish to change places with them, and in turn become envied by others. By envying them we envy ourselves. We wish to become instantly and magically transformed into objects of envy. [...] By flying us to the destination on the equivalent of a magic carpet, i.e. by being 'transported' out of time and place, such a 'transformation' becomes possible. Maybe it is for this reason that hotels in particular employ such a strategy in their advertising.
Another way to apply magic is to present a place as a wonderland, and this is particularly used in the promotional material of hotels too. One of the most explicit attempts to transform a hotel into a land of make-believe is provided by the Excalibur Hotel in Las Vegas40. The name already conveys the feeling of a magic and ancient place, with its obvious allusions to King Arthur and the round table, strengthened by the picture of an ancient castle. In this way, the potential customer is projected in a fabulous dimension, where everything can happen, as in fairy tales: he becomes a brave knight, she becomes a beautiful princess, around them there is an enchanted world full of fantastic beings. By using this strategy, the message stimulates the fantasy of customers, getting to the childish dimension that can be found inside everyone: the place promoted therefore seems to be the only bewitched kingdom where pipe dreams can become reality.
The role of text in decoding images Images have a very strong impact on the receivers of a message, since they are essential to draw attention. In fact Dann41 affirms that [...] there is no denying the importance of visual promotional imagery. The fact that up to 75% of brochure material is taken up by pictures (Dilley, 1986: 60), and that two in three people simply notice the headline and illustration of an advertisement, while only 15% bother to read the body copy (Mayo and Jarvis, 1981: 63) should be sufficient evidence to highlight the significance of visual messages.
39
G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, pp. 56-57. G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, pp. 57-58. 41 G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 190. 40
22
However, pictures alone are very hard to find in promotional material, in fact "[...]very rarely, if at all, does the language of tourism speak through pictures alone. Where photographs are featured, almost without exception they appear in tandem with a verbal message"42. The reason of this simultaneous presence can be explained by the fact that a picture can have different meanings for the various cultures, so their contents are polysemic and can have various interpretations. There are two different strategies that can be employed in order to be sure that the message conveyed by the image is the desired one: •
The first strategy, picked out by Barthes43, consists in adding a
text to the image, in which there is a clear anchorage with the content of the picture, so that it cannot be misinterpreted. For example44, a picture showing a desert beach of white sand and crystal clear water can be accompanied by a text that suggests the idea of going on holiday to find a moment of peace and relax in the middle of a frantic year: in this way, through the implicit opposition between the stressful life of the potential tourist and the peace that he/she could find in that heaven, the message is clearly communicated to the receiver and the picture cannot be misunderstood. •
The second strategy is called 'indexical transference' and has been
detected by Williamson45. It consists of "providing a structure which is capable of transforming the language of objects to that of people and vice versa", to use the words of its discoverer. By the use of this strategy, objects are transferred to people (e.g. 'Say it with flowers') and people are converted into objects (e.g. 'Pepsi people')"46. Furthermore, very often a picture of an advertisement shows objects and people, so that their properties are transferred to the promoted product. Uzzell47 provides an example of the use of this technique, analysing a picture that shows a girl in a swimming pool with a bottle of wine. Since it is a promotional picture of a destination, it is surely not advertising the wine, so
42
G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 188. Barthes, 1982, cit. in G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 46. 44 G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, pp. 46-47. 45 Williamson, 1983, cit. in G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 46. 46 Williamson, cit. in G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 48. 47 Uzzell, 1984, cit. in G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 48. 43
23
this element must have some feature that the advertiser want to be transferred to the girl. Uzzell picks out that the bottle of wine signifies the good life, hence this element is projected to the girl, and the viewers of the picture are led to identify themselves with the lucky girl and to desire to be at her place, coming to purchase the promoted product, that is the holiday. However, a big problem remains: all the elements inserted in the picture − the bottle of wine, in the previous example − can have multiple interpretations, in fact wine could also hint at lack of sexual inhibition, and in this case the meaning of the image would completely change. To avoid that, images should be accompanied by a text that clarifies the message, but it is sensible to assume that in many cases the real purpose is that of transmitting an ambiguous sense of a picture, playing with the double meanings that some elements of an image may suggest.
Exclusion or accommodation: strategies to control the clientele When tourism started, it was a phenomenon that only very rich and aristocratic people were able to afford, and hotels were luxury places where only people of the upper class could get to. With the passing of time, firstly the means of the middle class, and than those of the lower, began to improve: tourism started to be a mass phenomenon, and all the people that could afford it wanted to enjoy it. In response to such a demand, hotels could adopt two different strategies: exclusion or accommodation48. These two strategies are employed to this day, and they are clearly conveyed through the promotional material of the hotel. Exclusion is the typical strategy applied by luxury five-star hotels, in fact through particular elements they convey the message that the hotel is opened only for people who have the suitable features to afford it: in particular, it is closed for those people that do not have the "cultural capital in order to follow the appropriate codes of behaviour (in terms of dress, food service, rituals, familiarity with haute cuisine, etc.)"49. By the use of this strategy, customers who do not reach the requested level feel a sense of inferiority that leads them to renounce to book a room in that hotel, and in
48 49
G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 88. G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 88.
24
this way the hotel controls the clientele assuring that all guests have the same 'cultural capital'. Accommodation is the alternative to exclusion. By employing this strategy, hotels insert some elements, i.e. the buffet, the television or the coffee machine, that make the customer feel more like at home. By adapting rooms to the most common ways of living, guests feel reassured: they do not need to be anything more than who they are, therefore they are boosted to book because in this way they will enjoy the beauty and the peace of a holiday staying in a room that looks just like their home.
The tourist as a child A holiday is seen as a moment of pleasure, a break from the everyday stressful life, so customers have been led to believe that since they have spent so much time and money in preparing it, their holiday must be the emblem of freedom, autonomy and escape from everyday constraints: they do not want to be under control of other entities, they refuse whatever control means. However, what customers do not know is that without a minimum of control, their holiday would become a nightmare: they do not have the necessary knowledge of the place, the culture and the risks they could face. For this reason, hotels must balance two different needs: on the one hand their need to control the clientele, and on the other the need of the clientele to feel free. To please both parts, a hotel must find a way to control its guests by giving the impression that their freedom is completely guaranteed. This aim can be reached by employing different types of strategies; all of them treat the tourist as a child. Through the employment of these techniques, tourists believe that their needs and expectations are satisfied, and they do not feel controlled or less independent than what they would like to be. Dann50 picks out different groups of features that can be applied in order to control guests without them realizing it, the so called 3 Rs, 3 Hs, 3 Fs and 3 Ss of tourism:
50
•
Romanticism, Regression and Rebirth
•
Happiness, Hedonism and Heliocentrism
•
Fun, Fantasy and Fairy tales
•
Sea, Sex and Socialization
G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 101.
25
Below are illustrated the most important of these strategies. Romanticism. In the collective imagination, a holiday is expected to be romantic and exotic, a magic dimension in which the bad of daily life is replaced by the beautiful landscapes, the adventurous atmosphere and the uncontaminated nature showed by media, films and magazines51. To satisfy this expectation, many hotels play on the contrast between the boring and frustrating life of potential customers and the beautiful, exciting and reinvigorating world that can be found by booking on their website. In fact, this strategy has the aim of getting the customer carried from his/her humdrum adult life into a new childish and thrilling dimension, where everything is surprising and excites curiosity. Regression. This strategy52 has to do with the tricky moment of the separation from the home environment, which is always complicated and frightens the childish dimension that there is inside everyone. To reassure guests, in many promotional materials is employed the technique of the regression, the return to the Mother, which is particularly bound up with the world of nature. As noticed by Dann53, brochures are full of pictures that contain references to the maternal breast, as mountains or domes of buildings, and they also frequently show smiley people with different tasks that welcome and take care of the tourist, exactly as if he/she were a child. This phenomenon of protection is particularly marked when talking about hotels, in fact Dann54 says that Nowhere is this sense of security more evident than in pictures of hotel interiors whose womb-like structures denote warmth an protection. [...] Everything is taken care of, organized, and guaranteed. he hotel becomes a cocoon, a village, a club, an oasis of camaraderie, but above all a secure internal space safe from the threats of a menacing world beyond its portals.
Rebirth. This technique55 is strictly bound up with the previous one, because it refers to the conveyed message of return to the Mother, but seen as a dimension of fertility. In this case, nature is conceived as a 'Terra Genetrix', and the signs of its fertility are everywhere, in the flourishing vegetation, in the water courses, in the caves, 51
G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, pp. 102-103. G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, pp. 104-108. 53 G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 108. 54 G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 108. 55 G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, pp. 108-111. 52
26
in the valleys. By the use of this strategy, the landscape becomes the metaphor of the Mother's body, the most beautiful woman in the universe, and nature becomes the element that allows the adult to feel again those deep pleasures typical of the childhood. Happiness. This word is used to express the feeling that is conveyed by the language of tourism when promoting destinations. People are always shown as happy, relaxed, having fun, in contrast with everyday life56: all the things that are not usually permitted, become the normality during the holiday, people are led to exaggerate and adopt behaviours that they would not have in daily life, i.e. "sipping midnight champagne on beds bedecked with satin sheets"57. Heliocentrism. One of the most common features in pictures advertising hotels and tourist destination is the constant presence of the sun58. The sun is a symbol connected with happiness and health, and this presence can be noticed both in pictures and in texts. What is interesting about the pictures is the fact that the sun is frequently anthropomorphized, since it is shown as a smiley human face: this conveys a message of good life and well-being, so this is the reason why the sun and light are present in all the promotional material, even for those destinations, i.e. mountain areas, where the sun is not always shining as it could do, for instance, in the Caribbean. Another important feature can be noticed in texts that accompany images of the sun: the language used in this case is very sensual, giving the perception of a physical relationship between the sun and the human being, where the sun caresses the body, is a source of health and well being, providing an erotic tan. Furthermore, a particular characteristic of the sun has been observed by Dufour59, who affirms that [...]It is the myth of Oedipus which reveals the sun in archetypal terms as Mother. The sun is therefore not genderless [...]; it is definitely female. [...] To expose ourselves to the sun is to look for the human warmth of Mother. To receive a tan is like a prolonged contact with her skin which penetrates ours by osmosis. The light is the clear maternal gaze. The blue sky becomes the Immaculate Mother.
56
G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, pp. 111-113. Gottlieb, 1982, cit.in G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 113. 58 G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, pp. 116-117. 59 Dufour, 1978, cit. in G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 116. 57
27
In this sense, the reference to the sun guarantees the satisfaction of a primordial need, the contact with the mother, and in so doing, this element reassures the child inside the potential tourist. Fun. This aspect of treating the tourist as a child is really important, in fact one of the most essential features of a holiday is fun: the tourist who goes on holiday must have a good time, it is something obligatory. However, many times the recreational activities organised in order to entertain guests are not genuine, as noticed by Cohen60. This aspect is not important, he argues, since it is the enjoyment that counts. In other words, it is not important that the forest, the little island or the ancient castle are authentic, the only essential thing is that they are funny and exciting. During a holiday, adults are allowed to do what in daily life would be considered inopportune: for instance playing at being natives by dressing up with what they are told to believe are typical clothes, or riding a camel and enjoying it as a child. This one can be considered a form of freedom too, a way of breaking from the constraints of the adult life. The importance of this element is so high that Dann61 affirms that In the language of tourism, everywhere can be fun and everyone seems to be playing. Even the natives apparently do not have to work − they are too busy having a good time, enjoying themselves with the tourist as a child.
Sea. Another essential element that is really widespread in promotional material is the sea. An interpretation of this element62 sees the sea as a symbol of rebirth, since it represents the amniotic fluid that protects and surrounds the baby inside the womb of the mother. The sea and the beaches are elements that convey an image of infinite, freedom, a place where pure nature is met, so they are normally represented as deserted, but many times they are also depicted with surrounding buildings, that convey a feeling of safety and control. Sex and transgression. The sexual dimension is very often exploited when promoting tourist destinations, especially the exotic ones. In fact, since during a holiday tourists are led to exaggerate and overstep normal marks, thinking of a chance to have fun also from a sexual point of view may become a selling feature. This is the reason why also the language chosen to promote these destinations uses terms which clearly
60
Cohen, 1995, cit. in G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, pp. 117-118. G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 119. 62 G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 126. 61
28
refer to an intimate and physical relationship: to use Dann's words63, "trips for tourists are correspondingly captioned as 'city sensations', 'peak excitement' and 'wild adventures'". The importance of sex in tourist promotion is reinforced by the results of a research study made by A. Pritchad and N. J. Morgan64, which demonstrates that sex is one of the essential elements of attraction for young people between 18 and 30 years old. But what are the reasons that make sex have such a leading role? Marotta65 supposes that the element of sex should not be considered alone, but in a whole of particular conditions that take place during the holiday: having fun, exceeding with alcohol, partying every night, sleeping all day and enjoying the beaches at the sunset before starting another night of wild fun. Placed in this frame, sex is just seen as the occasion to meet young girls or boys in such an uninhibited atmosphere, where normal behaviours are reversed, where everything is made easier by the fact that there are no rules to follow, where everyone can express himself/herself without masks or without being afraid of being judged.
Infraction of taboo The vacation is commonly seen as an occasion to exaggerate, break the ordinary rules and live in a dimension where everything is granted and people have no moral inhibitions: for this reason, the language of tourism exploits this clichĂŠ to attract the potential tourist toward a destination, in promotional material but also through names that suggest unlimited pleasures. Uzzell66 observes that [...] female tourists are shown as topless, engaging in mock assault, feigning cries of alarm and hurt, tacitly agreeing to acts of complicity and acceptance of subordinate roles. They are featured [...] lying down provocatively and defenselessly on the sea shore, as being available, not so much as professional models, [...] but rather as the typical girl next door. The difference is, of course, that while the nubile neighbour back home may only issue conventional abrupt greetings to her male admirer over the fence, on holiday all restrictions and barriers are removed.
63
G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 127. Pritchad and Morgan, 1996, cit. in G. Marotta, I moventi della vacanza, trad. ingl., 1998, p. 61. 65 G. Marotta, I moventi della vacanza, trad. ingl., 1998, p. 61-65. 66 Uzzel, 1984, cit. in G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 207. 64
29
The lack of inhibition during a holiday does not regard only sex, but also the consumption of food and alcohol: the language of tourism encourages to drink and eat without limitation. By the use of this strategy, the language of tourism wishes to attract potential customers that see the holiday as the chance to realize their forbidden dreams.
The presence of VIPs and the importance of the location A destination, including hotels, can be promoted making reference to recognizable and famous people that are or have been bound up with the place promoted67. This people can be for example a symbol of a country, like Mahatma Gandhi for India, or a frequent visitor, like Darwin for the Galapagos or Princess Diana for the Amanusa hotel in Bali. However, Giordana68 claims that many times the image of the surrounding area is essential for the promotion of a destination or a hotel. Giordana69 defines the image as "the result of a mental process of simplification and synthesis of an enormous quantity of data relating to a region [...]", and assumes that the image can be different depending on the various situations. For those destinations whose image is positive, there is no need to improve the perception that customers have of the location, and hotels can exploit this feature because of the well known reputation of the city or the country: examples are Paris, Venice, the Hawaii, where hotels have an advantage due to the fact that they are located in such prestigious places. Sometimes it can happen that a place is infamous for negative elements or events, and this place can take advantage of this bad notoriety in order to draw customers' attention and prompt them to visit this place: some examples are the Bronx area in New York City, for its criminality, or Siberia for the awful weather. In both cases, whether the image of the destination is positive or negative, hotels and tourist facilities can exploit this feature in order to have another element that can be essential to convince the potential customer to purchase a stay in that hotel rather than in another one.
67
G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 176. F. Giordana, La comunicazione del turismo, trad.ingl., 2004, p. 56. 69 F. Giordana, La comunicazione del turismo, trad. ingl., 2004, p. 56. 68
30
The colour The importance of colours in communication is undeniable, and this element has drawn the attention of the researchers so much as to be studied for over six decades70: these research studies, typically carried out in a generic way in the field of communication, or specifically referred to tourist communication, have all contributed to demonstrate the importance of colours as an element of emotional communication and interest, in fact Dann in his work quotes a study of Andrew71, who "finds that tourism publicity which employs colour photographs is so much more effective than that which uses monochrome", and mentions also Mayo and Jarvis72 who report that "publicity which utilizes bright colours is far more successful in attracting potential tourist's initial attention than are black and white pictures". Furthermore, other research studies made during the second half of the 20th century73 have scientifically demonstrated that there is a strict connection between the primary colours − red, orange, yellow, blue, green, indigo and violet − and their use in the field of communication. In fact, different colours stimulate different emotional reactions in the consumer74, and by knowing the language of colours and its effects, the various types and shades of colours can be exploited in order to arouse in the viewer a positive perception of the element which the colour is associated with. In this sense, it is really important to know the language of colours, since each of them provokes a particular emotional reaction, and also because their meaning may radically change within different countries and cultures. Table 2 in the following page illustrates the differences among colours according with Giordana’s essay75, which starts with the assumption that warm colours affect in particular the emotional and physical sphere of the individual, while cold colours above all influence the rational dimension. The content of Table 3, elaborated by the HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group76, focuses instead on the different perceptions of the same colour in relation to the various cultures.
70
HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group, Effective Website design, s.d., p. 6. Andrew, 1977, cit. in G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 191. 72 Mayo and Jarvis, 1981, cit. in G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 191. 73 Cit. in F. Giordana, La comunicazione del turismo, trad. ingl., 2004, p. 40. 74 HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group, Effective Website design, s.d., p. 6. 75 F. Giordana, La comunicazione del turismo, trad. ingl., 2004, pp. 40-42. 76 HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group, Effective Website design, s.d., p. 8. 71
31
Table 2. The language of colours according to Giordana Colour
Description
Red
It evokes an idea of strength, aggressiveness, impulsiveness and passion. It symbolizes energy, power, and elegance in the darker shades.
Blue
It is associated with a feeling of security and calm, and it is considered the symbol of prestige, nobleness and royalty, but also the symbol of night and magic.
White
It is bound up with the concepts of purity, cleanliness and health. It also recalls a snowy landscape.
Pink
This is considered the emblem of femininity, so it is normally used to highlight sweetness and delicacy.
Yellow
It represents the future, development, modernity, and it recalls the concept of novelty.
Green
It is the colour of nature and fertility. It evokes sensations of quiet, peace, and serenity.
Black
Purple
Brown
Very often combined with golden, it creates an elegant and sophisticated atmosphere, so it is associated with refinement and luxury. This colour must be used with extreme care because in certain cultures it may convey a sense of bad luck, but in some cases it is employed to symbolize luxury and exoticism. It is considered the colour of austerity and penitence, since it is associated to the Franciscan frock. It symbolizes tradition, maturity and earth and it refers in particular to a male public.
32
Table 3. Colours and cultures according to HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing
Special
Interest Group Colour
White
Blue
Perceptions Symbolizes mourning or death in East Asia, but happiness and purity in Australia, New Zealand and USA. The most popular and most common corporate colour in the U.S. is perceived as cold and evil in East Asia, but stands for warmth in the Netherlands; interestingly, coldness in Sweden; death in Iran and purity in India.
Green
Represents danger or disease in Malaysia, envy in Belgium, love and happiness in Japan, sincerity and dependability in China.
Red
Means unlucky in Nigeria and Germany, but lucky in China, Denmark and Argentine. It reflects ambition and desire in India and love in China, Korea and Japan.
Yellow
Purple
Represents warmth in the USA, but infidelity in France. It is associated with jealousy in Russia, but pleasant, happy, good taste, royalty in China. In Brazil purple and yellow are perceived as symbolic of sorrow and despair. Purple is the colour of love in China and South Korea. Anger and envy in Mexico, sin and fear in Japan. It is considered expensive in China also.
33
The use of colours is useful not only in order to convey emotional feelings, but also to visually divide the different sections of a homepage77: Colour can also be used to enhance site navigation and create visual order through a website. One way to accomplish this is by infusing colours used in navigational links into the background colours within the related sections of the site.
In conclusion, all the research studies previously illustrated demonstrate that colour is a fundamental feature of communication, so it is essential to be able to manage the language of colours in order to make the website more attractive, and reinforce through the right colour the message that text and images want to convey.
Types of fonts and typography Texts are an essential element in websites, since together with images they are the main source of information. For this reason, the attention paid on the display of images must be the same paid on the layout of the text: therefore, typography and text font are a very important aspect of a website, and their use can make the difference between a good site and a hard-to-read one. The site Pallasart Web Design78 gives some advice in order to choose the right font. First of all, fonts must be divided into two big categories: •
Serif fonts have small strokes or lines that extend from the ends of
letters and symbols. Because the lines make each character more distinct, serif text is easier to read. •
Sans serif fonts are simple and straightforward, and lack the
"lines" of the serif fonts. Because the individual characters of sans serif fonts are less distinct, they are harder to read. A lack of individual detail also gives them less personality. The simplicity of sans serif fonts makes them easier to read on computers. They are the preferred choice for websites and presentations.
77 78
HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group, Effective Website design, s.d., p. 7. Pallasart Web Design , "How to select the right fonts for your website", s.d.
34
Furthermore, according to HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group79, "fonts with serifs are generally perceived to be more traditional and perhaps more elegant than sans serif fonts, while sans-serif fonts are generally perceived as being more sleek and modern". In the light of this information, a serif font should be considered if the website wishes to convey warmth, personality, elegance and tradition, while a sans serif font would be a better choice in the case of a technical, modern and uncluttered website80. It is also important to remember that the use of many different fonts could convey a sense of lack of homogeneity and coherence, so it would be better to use no more than two different fonts. A solution can be provided, for instance, by the choice of a serif font for slogans and words meant for effect, used in a larger size in order to convey an idea of elegance and flair, and the use of a sans serif font for smaller sections of texts, because of its easier readability on computer screens. Furthermore, as Dann81 underlines, particular types of font can strengthen the feeling conveyed, or the characters can be used and transformed in order to play with a particular feature of the destination: for instance, Whereas Roman lettering is often used for promoting ancient places, and capitals are typically employed for modern destinations [...], individual letters can be distorted for emphasis, as for example the 'A' in Paris or the 'O' in soleil.
Another aspect that must be always taken into consideration is the typography of the text − font size, colour, line spacing, alignment and so on. Even if the font selected is effective, the use of it in a very small size, or with an unsuitable contrast between the colour of the font and the background, could make the reading heavier. Since the right size of the text is something subjective, in order to solve this problem some websites82 have inserted a text-size adjustment widget, that allows each user to choose the size most suitable for his/her requirements.
79
HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group, Effective Website design, s.d., p. 9. Pallasart Web Design , "How to select the right fonts for your website", s.d. 81 G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 61. 82 Cit. in HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group, Effective Website design, s.d., p. 10. 80
35
For what concerns the contrast, the HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group83 affirms that Contrast is also a highly important consideration to typography selections, as it directly influences the user’s focus and readability. Low contrast between the font and background make reading a difficult prospect, and increase the likelihood of site abandonment. [...] The contrasting red/white, yellow/black, green/white combinations are scientifically proven to be the easiest for the eye to read.
Finally, it must be considered that typography establishes also a visual order and a hierarchy among the various sections of text. Hence it is important to carefully select not only the font and the colour, but also the size of the text according to the importance of the content, and also the space between sections: sections that have a common or similar content must stay closer than those which give different kinds of information.
Natural environments in the collective imagination According to Giordana84, there are some environments that have all along affected the human imagination because of their particularity, and this impact is exploited by the language of tourism in order to recall the features connected with these special places that could appeal to potential customers. The mountains have always been seen as the connection between the human world and the afterlife, a forbidden and impassable approach to another dimension. In some cases, they were depicted as the abode of demons and evil spirits, in others the mountains were the place where the gods used to live, so they were considered as a sort of heaven or the home of the divinity. The mountains have been the place where uncommon phenomena, often connected with the supernatural, used to happen, such as volcanic eruptions, geysers and water sources, but also a place where one could find healthy benefits (the mountain air, for example). The language of tourism highlights all these features of the mountains, and depicts them as a magic and virgin place, where the human action has not affected the mysterious events that happen there, where tourists may be in contact with the hereafter and the real sources of wellness.
83 84
HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group, Effective Website design, s.d., p. 10. F. Giordana, La comunicazione del turismo, trad. ingl., 2004, pp. 61-70.
36
The boundless representation of the desert is another characterizing space of the human imagination: the word desert cannot be pronounced with a neutral meaning, since it is full of recalls to primordial myths. It is also seen as empty, without any form of life, without any kind of points of reference. Travelling through the desert means to experience an escape from the modern world, and this space is associated with primitive rituals, purification and insurmountable ordeals, as well as the place where the relation between nature and human beings comes back to the origins. The language of tourism exploits this place in the same way as it does with the mountains, using it to suggest an escape from everything that is stifling in contemporary life, where tourists can find themselves, the only place where amazing adventures and extreme events can become reality. Islands and water places have changed their image during the centuries. Firstly, only fresh water was taken into consideration, since the sea was considered the symbol of the incompleteness of the Creation, and sea storms were considered the work of the Devil. With time, the sea water started to be revaluated and many positive properties were associated to it, so positive as to be able to cure body and mind. The island, seen as the point of connection between sea and earth, is one of the most common tourist stereotypes: in fact, most of Western people imagine the island as it was depicted during the centuries, with coconut palms, crystal clear waters and white and long sandy beaches, but this is only a 'geographical fiction'85. The island is seen as a place complete in itself, a finite element, where opposites can live together. In this sense, the language of tourism depicts islands as magic places where everything can happen, where tourists can find romanticism, adventure, peace and all kinds of pleasures.
The role of local people One interesting feature of the language of tourism, noticed by Dann86, is that pictures in promotional material leave out local people: in the rare occasions when they are included, they are normally shown as carrying out servile roles, or as involved in 'typical' and 'folkloristic' activities. This strategy can be employed so that potential customers feel the needed distance among themselves and the 'Others'. 85 86
F. Giordana, La comunicazione del turismo, trad. ingl., 2004, p 69. G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 209.
37
As said in the work of Dann87, The omission of these and other disadvantaged categories of persons also permits the reinforcement of 'predominant sexual, racial and national stereotypes'.
Tourists hate being tourists Urbain88 claims that tourists hate being considered tourists: they would prefer to travel toward locations unknown to tourists, or to use the words of Boyer and Viallon89 "they wish to believe that tourists are persons other than themselves". Obviously, this represents a paradox, since the tourist has only two choices: the first one is remaining at home, but in this case he/she should renounce to travel, the second one is to travel toward non-tourist places, but through his/her act of travelling, these places would be converted into tourist destinations, making him/her a tourist. The tourism industry cannot ignore this need, and it exploits a particular strategy in order to make the tourist feel not a tourist, as Dann90 explains in his work: The tourism industry fully recognizes this desire. It thus takes the tourist on one side, and gently whispers to him in utmost confidence that he need not be a tourist anymore, for here is a location unknown to tourists.
This strategy gives only an outward solution, in fact Dann continues: Of course, in so doing, the tourism establishment is similarly addressing millions of other like-minded listeners, who, after being converted and travelling to these places, turn them into tourist destinations.
In the end, it does not seem important that with the act of travelling, the so sought-after non-tourist destination becomes a tourist location, but the essential aim is to convince the potential customer that the place he/she is going to visit is unique, somewhere never experienced before, a new and exciting destination.
87
Uzzell, 1984, Urry, 1990, cit. in G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 210. Urbain, 1993, cit. in G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, pp. 44-45. 89 Boyer and Viallon, 1997, cit. in G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 45. 90 G. Dann, The Language of Tourism, 1998, p. 45. 88
38
CHAPTER 3. How do hotels employ the strategies of the language of tourism to create their websites? In this chapter the websites of some hotels spread across the world will be analysed, in order to illustrate how the visual and verbal techniques dealt with in the previous chapters are implemented to create a website as attractive as possible, and also the differences in the use of each strategy according to the result that the hotel wishes to obtain. The following image shows the location of the selected hotels around the world. The selection procedure was carried out randomly with the proviso that each hotel should be in a different country; however particular attention was devoted to Italy where two hotels were chosen. All hotels were selected from the website of the Five Star Alliance, one of the most important online travel agencies collecting only four and five deluxe hotels. In this study only five-star hotels were chosen.
39
3.1 Palmeraie Golf Palace - Marrakech, Morocco Picture 1. The homepage of Palmeraie Golf Palace, Marrakech
Picture 1 shows the homepage of Palmeraie Golf Palace91, in Marrakech, Morocco. As regards the structure, most of the space of the homepage is taken up by an image of a triumphal oriental arch at the end of an alley delimited by palm trees; on the left, there is the logo of the hotel, and beside the logo there is a sentence, a slogan. Beneath the logo there is a vertical black and white menu, while horizontally, almost at the centre of the page, there is another menu divided into different coloured sections, with a blurred little image under each label. The first important thing to say is that all the contents of the homepage are displayed in a single screen, so there is no need to scroll down the page: the user can see all that the homepage offers. Furthermore, Picture 2 shows an enlarged detail of the homepage where one can notice that information on the site is divided into two different areas, corresponding to two menus: the coloured one provides the most important
91
Palmeraie Golf Palace, Marrakech (visited on 10th September 2012), website: http://www.pgpmarrakech.com/pgp-anglais/index-en.html.
40
details about the hotel, while the vertical one is used to give further secondary information. In this case, colours are used to create a hierarchy of importance, in fact the most visible elements of this homepage are the image and the coloured section of the horizontal menu. Picture 2. The menus of the homepage
Another leading element is the slogan that is placed upon the image, like a sentence written in the blue sky. The content of the sentence provides an example of three techniques analysed in the previous chapter: use of the imperative mood, egotargeting and magic. The imperative here is directly expressed, with the verb give placed at the beginning of the sentence, which has a very strong impact on the receiver. Also the use of ego-targeting is fundamental for the effectiveness of the sentence, since it is addressed to the reader who is identified by means of the second person pronoun 'you': "Give yourself time to appreciate the magic of the moment" seems to mean 'give yourself a chance, a chance that only you (the individual potential customer) have been selected to take, all that you can see is waiting just for you, because you are our priority'. The reference to the element of magic is in this case explicit, in fact the word used is exactly magic, not something else that should implicitly evoke it. Moreover, the feeling of an enchanted atmosphere is strengthened by the palace in the picture, which is very similar to those palaces of sultans and oriental sovereigns depicted in stories and legends like "The Arabian Nights". 41
Focusing on the horizontal menus, it can be noticed that each section has a corresponding colour, and this provides a further division not only for the contents, but also from the visual point of view. When the pointer passes on a label, a little image with a short description of the section's contents appears, as shown in Picture 3. Also here, for instance in the Spa section, the strategy of ego-targeting and verbs used in imperative is employed ("Put yourself..."), but there is also a reference to a sensual dimension ("Pure pleasure") that recalls sex and transgression, but the infraction of taboo too, since this two words seem to suggest a dimension of total lack of inhibition. Picture 3. Content of the sections
The use of colour is relevant in this homepage: in fact colours have been used also to differentiate the various pages. Interestingly, the pages of each section maintain in the background the colour of the label located in the homepage, helping further the user to understand his/her position inside the site, as shown in Picture 4: when we click on the red section Accommodation on the homepage, we are led to a page with a red background, while clicking on the pink Spa section the user can surf pages with a pink background.
42
Picture 4. Pages inside the sections
Another important feature that should be underlined is the fact that the user finds a link to the photo gallery and the videos already on the homepage: the easiness to get to a gallery in order to see more about the hotel is really important to reassure the user. However, an observation may be made about the size of fonts: both on the homepage and on the pages inside the site, texts are written with small characters, and the site does not provide a widget that allows the user to adjust the dimension of the text, so one must take into consideration that this absence may make the reading of the website harder and discourage users in continuing the navigation. 43
3.2 Cristallo Hotel Spa & Golf - Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy Picture 5. Homepage of Cristallo Hotel
This is the whole homepage of Cristallo Hotel Spa & Golf92. The black dotted line marks off the portion of homepage that can be seen without scrolling down the page, so according to Zarabara’s theory this part should contain the most important elements in order to draw users’ attention.
92
Cristallo Hotel Spa & Golf, Cortina d'Ampezzo (visited on 10th September 2012), website: http://www.cristallo.it/en.
44
The page has a white background, which is absolutely appropriate for a mountain hotel since it recalls the snow, with grey fonts. Sans serif fonts have been used for menus and the booking section, while serif fonts, which provide a more elegant look, have been chosen to elaborate the logo and for slogans on the picture and in the lower part of the page. The contrast between fonts and background is not very marked, but it does not disturb the reading. The white background brings out the colours contained on the page, most of which comes from the big pictures at the centre of the page. On the top centre of the page there is the logo, and here one can notice that the 'T' of "Cristallo" has been changed into a stylized body with two wings and a little crown, elements that recall an angel or a fantastic winged being, as shown in Picture 6. Picture 6. Cristallo Hotel's logo
Beneath the logo there is a menu divided into areas, where the user can easily find the kind of information he/she is looking for; moreover, just passing the pointer on the label, other more specific labels appear in order to further subdivide the pages and help the surfer to find the exact desired section. Picture 7. Menu of the homepage
As already shown in the previous image, under the menu there is an area, the largest of the homepage, where nine different images unfold automatically. The following picture shows them in small-scale. 45
Picture 8. Images of the Cristallo hotel homepage
46
In the top left-hand corner each image shows the slogan "There is no higher place". Here one can suppose that the polysemic term higher refers to the fact that the hotel is located on a mountain, suggests that there is no other place with a higher quality standard, and evokes the experience of being in paradise. In this sense, the hotel conveys a message of exclusivity that can recall the technique of exclusion as a way of controlling the type of clientele: only people that feel they match up to the requested level both from the economic and cultural point of view will feel allowed to book a room in such a prestigious facility. There are two pictures that show the landscape, one in daylight and the other at night, which summon up the mountains and the mysterious atmosphere and romanticism that can be felt in those places. Other pictures show details of the interiors of the hotel. Two show people, probably guests of the hotel. In one picture a young well-dressed couple is shown: he protects her with an umbrella, even if in the picture it seems that it is not snowing or raining. They are both raising a smile and they look elegant and happy. This picture is a perfect example of the application of the technique of magic: the viewer envies the couple and identifies himself/herself with one of them, taking their place and becoming envied by others, so by staying in this magic place the user can be transformed into an elegant, beautiful, happy and rich person. Moreover, both the couple and the girl smiling in front of the hotel are shown as happy and relaxed. Under the area dedicated to the images, there is a little horizontal section that allows the user to book a room directly from the homepage, and below this there are some icons that serve as links to other sections, as for instance the photo gallery. In the lower part of the page there is a section of text. The size of the characters is big enough to make the reading easier, and sentences are short and effective. Here the ego-targeting technique can be found ("where you can enjoy") and it should also be noticed that all adjectives are used in order to convey the sense of euphoria mentioned by Dann among the divergent properties of the language of tourism93: everything at the Cristallo Hotel seems to be the best, the biggest, the most luxurious and exclusive, the most modern and comfortable, up to a climax expressed by the closing sentence of the text, "Holidays of the very highest level", as to say 'there is nothing better than what you can find here'. To reinforce this concept, just under the sentence there are all the logos
93
G. Dann, The language of tourism, 1998, p. 65.
47
of the awards received for their excellent service, and all the prestigious symbols of chains and organizations that verify the possession of a specific, high standard level of quality by deluxe hotels (i.e. Leading Hotels).
48
3.3 Le Touessrok - Trou d'Eau Douce, Mauritius Picture 9. The homepage of Le Touessrok hotel
Le Touessrok94 is a luxury five-star hotel situated on Mauritius Island. The homepage is simple and really impressive: on the top there is a horizontal area where there is a pull-down menu (Picture 10), while almost all the page is taken up by four images that unfold automatically on the screen. Picture 10. Pull-down menu
On each image there is a white writing where there is the name of the hotel, a big 'T' is the logo, and the geographical coordinates, with the logo of Leading Hotels, an association that examines and selects only the most luxurious and elegant hotels in the world. Picture 11 shows the images that unfold on the homepage in a small-scale.
94
Le Touessrok, Mauritius (visited on 14th September 2012), website: http://www.letouessrokresort.com/?lang=en.
49
What immediately draws the attention of the potential guest is the constant presence of water: all the pictures show the sea as part of the hotel, and in one picture there is a swimming pool just a few meters away from the seashore, recalling a sort of continuity between the sea water and the water inside the pool. Here the site exploits exactly the image of the tropical island as part of the collective imagination, where the island is seen as a desert place, the weather is always warm and sunny, beaches are huge, full of palm trees and white sand, and the water is clear and pure: this idyllic picture has been reconstructed in Picture 12, that shows two photos contained in the photo gallery of the hotel, in order to convince the potential tourist that what he/she imagines is truly existing in the reality of this hotel. Picture 11. Images contained in the homepage of Le Touessrok in order of appearance
50
Picture 12. The idyllic vision of the tropical island exploited by the hotel
One of the most impressive features of this website is the fact that the colours showed in the pictures are very bright and intense, and this feature is really important to draw attention. Moreover, the most present colour is light blue, the colour of the sea and the sky: interestingly, in one picture on the homepage the boundary between sea and sky is blurred, and this suggests an impression of infinite and pure nature. As regards the colours, another important feature is that there is a good contrast between the labels and the background of the menu. The choice of the shades provides a very elegant effect, with the background that has a really similar colour to that of the sand. Finally, one must notice that the homepage of the website does not present any section of text, in fact all the information is provided in a second level of navigation, organized through the menu. This homepage hence stakes all on the images showed in the initial presentation, with the aim of impressing and seducing the potential customer and invite him/her to discover more in the other sections of the site.
51
3.4 Taj Lake Palace - Udaipur, India Picture 13. The homepage of Taj Lake Palace
The homepage of the Taj Lake Palace95 in Udaipur, India, has a strong impact on the viewer. The display shows only the part above the dotted line, a porch with a huge cupola in the Oriental style, with many empty deckchairs in the shadow. To see the rest of the contents the user must scroll down the page, which is very long. On the right side of the picture, there is a sentence: this is partially written with sans serif fonts, "In the footstep of", but the last word is written with an elegant and
95
Taj Lake Palace, Udaipur (visited on 12th September 2012), website: http://www.tajhotels.com/Luxury/Grand-Palaces-And-Iconic-Hotels/Taj-Lake-PalaceUdaipur/Overview.html.
52
bigger serif font, and it is no accident that this word is kings, since all the visual structuring of the sentence is elaborated so that the word kings draws the user’s attention. This sentence has a clear reference to the mythical ancient world of kings and realms, so there is a reference both to the past as far superior to the present, and to magic, since staying in this hotel the user will be transformed into a king or a queen. The textual section below the image (Picture 14) recalls again a fantastic dimension ("It’s hard to believe the floating vision in marble is real"), as if the boat trip needed to reach the hotel were a magic passage between the real world and a new, enchanted amazing world. Furthermore, there is a reference to a VIP, a royal VIP, the maharaja, who stayed at the hotel in 1930s and was surprised by the beauty and elegance of the hotel. Ego-targeting is present in the whole text, in fact all the sentences are addressed with the second person singular, ‘you': the sentence "you are in a boat" clearly demonstrates that the aim of this section is that of transporting the user into the picture, into the bewitched world depicted through images and words. Picture 14. Textual section of the homepage
Visiting the photogallery, one can notice that the hotel employs the technique of excluding local people from the photos, guests are always white Westerners, while locals are never shown as guests, but always as part of the staff; this opposition is quite strong when comparing two photos of the gallery, photo 24 and 25, showed in Picture 15: one photo, named "Palace Butler" shows a local man, dressed with a typical Indian costume, who smiles and carries a tray with two glasses with a magnificent landscape of the hotel's beauties. Just following, there is another photo, called "Pontoon Dining" showing a young couple of white guests having dinner on a floating isolated area in the middle of the sea in a very romantic atmosphere. Tourists are always shown as being the only guests of the hotel, as if the hotel were reserved to welcome only them,
53
avoiding crowded images in order to strengthen the impression of ego-targeting. Another strategy applied here is the regression, since the butler is smiling and looks ready to help the tourist and take care of him/her as if he/she were a child. Picture 15. Role of the local people
Just under the main picture, there is a link that allows the user to view a video of the hotel, providing a full immersion inside the facility. Another very important element is the map on the left, with the full address, the phone number and a link to send immediately an email: these items, which may be considered foregone, are instead very important, since in many cases there may be difficulties in finding the address of the hotel or a link with the contacts. According to the techniques and requirements listed in the previous chapter, this website seems to be very effective: there are images that make the homepage attractive, two menus, one dedicated to the chain of the hotel, the other dedicated in detail to the hotel, there is a video, maps and all kind of information to get to the facility or to contact the staff, the use of colours is well balanced and makes the hotel seem elegant and stylish; furthermore, all these elements involve almost one of the techniques of the language of tourism in response to tourists' needs, so it may be assumed that this website has high possibilities to draw a potential customer's attention and cajole him/her into booking a room.
54
3.5 Rome Cavalieri Hotel - Rome, Italy Picture 16. Rome Cavalieri Hotel's homepage
Rome Cavalieri Hotel96, in Rome, presents a very particular homepage. The dominant colour is the blue of the background, the colour of elegance and royalty, which contrasts with the golden used for the logo, the menu and the reservation areas in the top left-hand corner. The unfolding images in the centre of the page show interiors that recall the rooms of kings and nobles, for instance those of the De' Medici family, or the rooms that can be visited in the Chateau of Versailles. In fact, one of the leading features of this hotel is "an art collection that outshines many museums", as written in the text on the homepage, because all the hotel is furnished and decorated in order to make guests feel in a precious place where beauties of the past and modern comforts find a unique balance that can be found nowhere else, as shown in Picture 17. The importance of the art collection is underlined by the fact that there is a special label that 96
Rome Cavalieri, Waldorf Astoria Hotels, Rome (visited on 11th September 2012), website: http://www.romecavalieri.com/.
55
indicates the presence of the collection, as if it were a further service provided by the hotel.
Picture 17. Works of art in the Rome Cavalieri - Royal chair set, French clocks, Tiepolo's painting
Here the technique of the past as far superior to the present can undoubtedly be noticed, and it is also underlined by the name of some suites: the image in the homepage shows the "Petronius suite", while Picture 18 shows the "Napoleon suite".
56
Picture 18. Napoleon Suite
The feeling of a special dimension, almost trapped between past and present, is underlined through the slogan in the low left-hand corner of the page, which says "There are places you always remember, there are experiences you will never forget". The use of different colour and size characters allows to highlight the most important words, especially the contrast between always and never. Furthermore, the slogan applies the ego-targeting technique, since it is addressed to 'you'. However, the text section is written in a neutral way, there is no reference at all to a precise subject, and this is quite unusual for the language of tourism. In the low right-hand corner, there is a logo that shows an important award obtained by the hotel, an element that gives further prestige to the facility and makes the user feel the hotel as luxurious and very exclusive, since it has been voted as the number one among all the other leisure hotels in Europe. Exclusiveness is also assured for those guests who want to stand out on the other guests of the hotel: Rome Cavalieri in fact provides a private area, the "Imperial Club" (another recall to the ancient world, but also a way to say 'by reaching this area, you become a real emperor') where only guests who book the best can accede. In fact, the description of the Club highlights "for guests entitled to access", it therefore – by implication − excludes all other guests. Only those who have chosen the best can therefore enjoy this exceptional treatment, because the Imperial Club is "one of the most appealing spaces in the Rome Cavalieri Hotel".
57
All the pages of the site are enriched by impressive pictures, and the menu on the homepage gives the opportunity to visit the gallery or to see the videos. However, there are some elements that differ from the theory illustrated in Chapters 1 and 2: for example, there is no path that allows the user to know his/her position within the site, and this makes the surfing more difficult; furthermore, characters of the body copy are very small, and there is no widget that gives the user the chance to adjust the size of the text. Finally, it must be noticed that even if images are very impressive, there is just a limited number of them, especially in the section that illustrates rooms and suites, in fact there are only one or maximum two pictures for each typology of room.
58
3.6 The Cove Atlantis - Paradise Island, Bahamas Picture 19. The Cove Atlantis homepage
The homepage of The Cove Atlantis97 displays all the features advised by Web designers: a big area dedicated to images, which are the main element employed to draw
97
The Cove Atlantis, Bahamas (visited on 14th September 2012), website: http://thecoveatlantis.com/.
59
the surfer’s attention, a menu on the top in order to find the needed information, little sections of text with good size fonts and good readability. However, this homepage has some particular features: first of all, there are no pictures of the facility on the homepage, and also photos in the gallery show more the guests of the hotel than the hotel itself. This gives the impression that the aim is not that of selling a place, but rather a lifestyle. Furthermore, images show beautiful young men and women in very intimate attitudes, and many texts of the site make reference to sensuality and forbidden pleasures, as can be seen in Pictures 20 and 21. Picture 20. Images from the photogallery
Picture 21. Text on the homepage
Many services and details provided by the hotel strengthen the impression that everything is structured in order to favour an intimate and sensual meeting among guests. For example, the presence of the so-called daybeds around the swimming pool, or the opportunity to find a moment of privacy in the cabanas, rooms between the pool 60
and the beach that can be completely closed in order to be safe from prying eyes, are all elements that suggest the idea of an inhibited and sensual atmosphere. Picture 22. Daybeds and cabanas
The text showed in Picture 21 does not refer only to sensuality, but also employs the technique of the use of imperatives ("Live your life"), while the strategy of egotargeting can be found in all the pages of the site. Finally, another particular feature of this homepage is the label in the menu specifically dedicated to the nightlife: if this section has been expressly created, it means that majority of guests are interested in nightlife, and this experience must be special, thrilling and exciting with a range of options provided to the guest.
61
3.7 The Oberoy Lombok - Lombok, Indonesia Picture 23. Oberoy Lombok homepage
The Oberoy Lombok Hotel98, in Indonesia, has been selected among many other websites because in the light of what was illustrated in the previous chapters it seems to be less effective than those analysed until now.
98
The Oberoy Lombok Hotel, Indonesia (visited on 12th September 2012), website: http://www.oberoihotels.com/oberoi_lombok/index.asp.
62
First of all, the graphic seems too essential: there is a total absence of colours, the background is white, texts are grey, characters are impersonal and small, so reading may be difficult, in particular for the labels in the menu. Another aspect that seems not very effective is the typography of the textual section: it appears as a block without hierarchy among the most important and secondary information: there is no use of different typography, bulleted lists or spaces in order to guide the eye through the reading. Moreover, pictures selected are less effective, and do not reward the beauties of the hotel as they should: inside the gallery, in fact, one can easily find other images that may have a stronger impact on the potential customer, since they show romantic landscapes or the furnishing of the interiors, as shown in Picture 25. Picture 24. Images in the gallery
If the first impression of the site is created by the potential customer in a few seconds, all the efforts made by employing other strategies − as ego-targeting, romanticism and reference to the sea − seem to be defeated by a poor graphic, which does not strike the user and is not able to draw his/her attention when competing with other more elaborated websites, as those previously examined. The Oberoy Lombok provides a perfect example of a good website that is not brought out effectively by the homepage: it might become a competitive site if the details mentioned above were modified so that those elements which make it less impressive and consequently less effective can be improved.
63
CONCLUSION This thesis has been conceived with two main aims in mind. The first one consists of creating an ideal model of how the homepage of a hotel website should be structured and which strategies of the language of tourism can be employed in order to make the website effective and able to draw potential customers' attention, so that users are seduced by the idea of staying in the hotel and consequently led to book a room. The second aim is to analyse the homepages of five-star hotels and illustrate how they apply this model and how they use the techniques of the language of tourism, accommodating them to the features of their specific facility. Nowadays more and more people use the Internet as a direct source of information and as a tool to make purchases, but it is also a tool that accentuate the rivalry among competitors: they all have the same system of communication, so they need to find some special features in order to make their website beat the competition. Therefore, a website that is well structured, impressive and able to convey the desired messages to potential customers has become critical. Furthermore, there are many essays and research studies that show how to create an effective website, though it is hard to find some that specifically focus on hotel websites: these sites in fact need to communicate with potential tourists through a specific language, the language of tourism, which has special features and proper rules that hotels must be able to handle if they want to convey a positive image and influence customers' behaviours. For this reason, this thesis has the aim to provide some guidelines about the structuring of hotel homepages and websites. To reach the first purpose of this thesis, that is to pick out an ideal model of an effective homepage and website of a hotel, many essays and research studies of experts in Web Design, tourist communication and language of tourism have been consulted. One of the most known experts is Graham Dann, whose essay The Language of Tourism represents a point of reference for all those who study the field of tourist communication, in fact he is quoted in a great number of research studies. Another very important source of information is the HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group, member of the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI), a global organization of sales founded in the 64
United States in 1927 that provides hotels with tools, insights and expertise to improve marketing and communication with customers. Betsy Bender Stringam (member of the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA), and John Gerdes Jr (member of the College of Hospitality, Retail, & Sport Management, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA) have published in 2010 an article titled "Are pictures worth a thousand room nights? Success factors for hotel web site design" on the prestigious Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, which was launched in 2010 with the purpose of being a tool of contact between the tourist industry and the knowledge developed in the field of marketing and communication. Another expert is Francesco Giordana, an Italian journalist, researcher and university professors. He is specialised in tourist communication, and has published many essays about the importance of communication for tourist facilities; the essay consulted to realize this thesis is La comunicazione del turismo tra immagine, immaginario e immaginazione. Claudia Zarabara is the author of the essay Strategie di Web Marketing per il settore turistico alberghiero. She is an Italian expert of Web Marketing and online communication, a university professor, and collaborates with hotel facilities since many years. Gaia Marotta wrote I moventi della vacanza, an essay commissioned by the Azienda di Promozione Turistica del Trentino Alto Adige that deals with some researches about the motivations and the psychological and mental processes that influence tourists in their choice of the destination. Finally, a fundamental source of information is the Pallasart Web Design Company, specialised in creating powerful websites since 1996. On their website one can find useful advice and guidelines that explain the importance of some elements in the structure of a website. Moreover, this company has been awarded with many prestigious prizes because of the effectiveness of some of the websites that they have created. To reach the second aim of this thesis, that is to analyse the homepages and websites of hotels, it has been adopted the standard of randomly selecting five-star hotels from the online travel agency Five Star Alliance, which examines and carefully selects luxury hotels across the world. This criterion has been followed because all these 65
hotels have the economic opportunity to get to the best knowledge about Web Design and tourist communication, committing themselves to experts in these fields. Basing on the ideal model obtained by combining the data about the essential elements of a website and those regarding the techniques of the language of tourism, seven five starhotel homepages have been analysed in order to identify their critical features and the strategies of the language of tourism employed in order to convey explicit and implicit messages. The results obtained in this study are very interesting: all the websites analysed present and employ some of the strategies illustrated in Chapters 1 and 2, each of them with the obvious distinctions due to the different features that characterize and make them unique. In some cases the strategies and the features considered essential have not been applied in the way illustrated by the experts. However one must notice that, in six cases out of seven, the differences are few and seem not to be crucial for the effectiveness of the homepage: only in one case, the last one, the homepage analysed seems to present a number of missing features and a non-optimal application of many strategies that leads the site to be perceived as less effective if compared with the other homepages and sites examined. Of course further research is necessary in order to delve into this topic and realize a guide that could be helpful to explain the structural features and the working of the strategies of the language of tourism that are essential to create an effective, impressive and seducing homepage for a hotel website.
66
APPENDIX Homepage of Palmeraie Golf Palace - Marrakech, Morocco
67
Homepage of Cristallo Hotel Spa & Golf - Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
68
Homepage of Le Tousserok - Trou d'Eau Douce, Mauritius
69
Homepage of Taj Lake Palace - Udaipur, India
70
Homepage of Rome Cavalieri, Waldorf Astoria Hotels - Rome, Italy
71
Homepage of The Cove Atlantis - Paradise Island, Bahamas
72
Homepage of The Oberoi Lombok Hotel - Lombok, Indonesia
73
REFERENCES Bender Stringam, B. & Gerdes Jr J. (2010), "Are pictures worth a thousand room nights? Success factors for hotel web site design" in Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, Vol. 1, pp. 30-49, website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17579881011023007 (visited on 13th September 2012). Dann, G. (1998) The language of Tourism, Wallingford, Cab International. Giordana, F. (2004) La comunicazione del turismo tra immagine, immaginario e immaginazione, Milano, FrancoAngeli. HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group (s.d.) Effective Website Design, website: http://www.tourismtechnology.com/tourismtechnology/cms/documents/files/TI G_Global_HSMAI_Effective_Website_Design.pdf (visited on 12th September 2012). Marotta, G. (1998) I moventi della vacanza, Rimini, Guaraldi. Pallasart Web Design (s.d.) "How to select the right fonts for your website", website: http://www.pallasweb.com/fonts.html (visited on 17 October 2012). Zarabara, C. (2009) Strategie di Web Marketing per il settore turistico alberghiero, Milano, Hoepli.
Primary source: hotel websites Cristallo Hotel Spa & Golf, website: http://www.cristallo.it/en (visited on 10th September 2012). Five Star Alliance, website: http://www.fivestaralliance.com/ (visited on 10th September 2012). Le Touessrok Hotel, website: http://www.letouessrokresort.com/?lang=en (visited on 14th September 2012). Palmeraie Golf Palace, website: http://www.pgpmarrakech.com/pgp-anglais/indexen.html (visited on 10th September 2012). Rome Cavalieri Hotel, website: http://www.romecavalieri.com (visited on 11th September 2012). Taj Lake Palace Udaipur, website: http://www.tajhotels.com/Luxury/Grand-PalacesAnd-Iconic-Hotels/Taj-Lake-Palace-Udaipur/Overview.html (visited on 12th September 2012). 74
iskire.net
The Cove Atlantis, website: http://thecoveatlantis.com/ (visited on 14th September 2012). The Oberoi Lombok, website: http://www.oberoihotels.com/oberoi_lombok/index.asp (visited on 12th September 2012).
75