(Re)evaluating language attitudes on Indonesian tourism website: A study on ecolinguistics

Abstract

Tourism is one of the government’s ways of promoting the country’s identity and improving its economic growth. For tourists, it is to find not only reliable information but also promotion and the existence of the website is effective to persuade the potential tourists. The presence of nature’s beauty is an overwhelming source of curiosity for visitors. The popularity of Indonesian tourism has motivated scholars to research tourism discourse strategies, yet the study on how nature was represented on the tourism website is still scarce. By applying Critical Discourse Analysis, this paper attempts at (re)evaluating language attitudes of the ecolexicon on the Indonesian tourism website. The research problems are formulated to answer (1) what domains of the environment are presented on the website, (2) how the ecolexicon found is evaluated, and (3) how the environment should be described on the website. The data were taken from 16 destination texts accessed from www.indonesia.travel. This research found that the physical environment comprising various domains dominated the website in the form of appreciation. The domination of valuation on the website revealed that Indonesian nature was promoted in terms of its value. It persuaded potential tourists to adore the beauty of the Indonesian physical environment. The website was re-evaluated to promote not only the physical environment but also social and economic environments in the form of judgment. The absence of judgment needs to be considered by the government considering that tourism should be a good chance to teach people how to respect nature despite people’s excitement when visiting the tourism destinations.

Language of Evaluation on Attitudinal System of Lombok Tourism Promotion

“…In the video, there is an absence of appreciation of judgment. The absence of judgment should be considered by the government officer or video maker of tourism promotion because it could be a good chance to teach people or tourists how to respect and take care of nature despite their excitement when visiting the tourism destinations (Isti'anah, 2020).…”

Indonesian Tourism Discourse on www.indonesia.travel: Mood Analysis

“…However, the description on the website should not only position nature as a tourism object, but it should also invite tourists as the experiencers and actors who can preserve the beauty of Indonesia. The domination of nature or the physical environment on the website portrays Indonesia's land, coast, flora, and fauna are objects of consumption (Isti'anah, 2020). Instead of presenting the discourse of place to play descriptively, the website can involve imperative mood functioning as a command to remind the readers that Indonesian nature should be preserved, too.…”

Flora and Fauna in Danau Singkarak (Ecolinguistic Study)

“…The development of language had been clearly observed with the emergence of linguists who had conducted to the numerous studies on the relationship between the language and the environment: the labeling of the objects or the animals which were correlated with the sounds produced by surrounding environment, such as the sounds of thunder, gurgling of water, and roars of animals. In this explanations that the language and the environment were related to the human and the environment related to the animals and other objects surrounding the human life (Gunarto, 2018;Isti'anah, 2020;Kittakoop, 2001;Sibarani, 2014;Yuniawan et al, 2017Yuniawan et al, , 2019.…”