Language Technique

Introduction

Tourism is one of the single largest industries in the world. Over time, an increased number of destinations have opened up and invested in tourist development. There is about 1 billion active tourists that travel around the world in each year. So I chose travel advertisement for my topic which means that I could analyze how the languages in travel advertisements have an impact on people who are tourists who like to travel around the world. I collected the data from magazines and some from TV commercials. There are two types of travel advertisements, airline advertisements and holiday advertisements. I looked at them separately from 10 airline advertisements and 11 holiday advertisements.

1. What type of language techniques are usually used in travel advertisement?

The most common language technique used in the airlines advertisements was the slogan. Slogan is a word or a phrase that is easy to remember. 87% of the advertisements I collected used slogans. For example Thai airways advertisements say ‘smooth as silk' this is a slogan, simile and alliteration. In the same way, Air New Zealand used a different slogan ‘nothing to hide' to covey quality of services for the consumers on their airlines. Most of them were located above or below the name of the airline and some of them were located nearly at the end of the text. The color is also the same color as the name of the airline.

The second language technique that is used but is less common than slogan, is adjectives. The purpose of an adjective is describing nouns. About 71.43% of the advertisements I collected used adjectives. I recognized that most of the adjective that they used were connected to people's impression and quality of the airlines. For example the sentence ‘From departure to arrival, only dignified services for our dignified guests' of Korean Air. This is an adjective combined with repetition. On other hand, the adjectives in Lufthansa airline advertisements were ‘comfortable long haul flights', ‘thoughtful touches' and ‘arrival refreshed and ready to discover'.

For instance, 70% of holidays advertisements have used repetition in their advertisements. Repetition is a common language technique in a tourism industry. A Bula Fiji advertisement repeats the idea of being relaxed by using the adjective ‘relaxing' twice and the infinitive verb ‘to relax' as well. The repetition is not exactly the same but the idea is the same. For the Samoa advertisement it repeats three words ‘are/is still here' in every sentence. ‘The sunshine is still here. The waterfalls and blowholes are still here…The warm smiling faces are still here' The verb changes but the important part ‘still here' is repeated exactly.

Visual language is used in all travel advertisements. There are three kinds of visual languages that are important, often appeared: color, images and symbol. I have noticed that most airline advertisements used the image of a flight attendant. The color that they used was the same as the color of uniform and the company logo. For example Thai airways advertisement is divided into two sections. At the top is a dominant image of beautiful beach with coconut trees and at the bottom is an image of flight attendants holding umbrellas. They used purple for the background and golden yellow for the text. The visual language in Korean Air advertisement is unique; they placed the text in a trophy shape which is used for the symbol of what the text is about. The Tourism Authority of Thailand advertisement used a dominant image of spa with the place/environment at the start for the main idea and below the dominant image are mini images to support the ideas.

2. How has the language persuaded a target market purchase their services?

The advertisements which I have looked at, mostly used slogans. The reason behind the use of slogans in their advertisements is because slogans are used to create a memorable and leave the thoughts of product or service in the consumer's minds. Thai airway has done very well with the slogan ‘Smooth as Silk'. The concept of service is delicate and courteous like silk. ‘Smooth as Silk' created the allusion of the flight experience that is smooth and safe. These all reinforce that you will fly with the quality airline. Silk is Thailand's major export. They used the word ‘silk' to give a strong allusion to the national airline and the sense of authenticity. Air New Zealand's slogan ‘Nothing to hide' is created to promote the airline's fares, which ‘have nothing to hide'. It represents