Conveying a destination Image: a case study of Rome

The paper explores the linguistic strategies used to construct a destination image, which is a multidimensional concept formed by cognitive and affective evaluations of a place. It aims to investigate the role played by language in shaping the image of Rome as a destination. Applying the Appraisal Theory to a corpus containing four different Internet genres (namely, newspapers, tour operator websites, travel websites and travel blogs), the analysis concentrates specifically on the use of two of the Attitude sub-systems, that is Affect and Appreciation. The findings show to what extent the image of Rome projected in the texts is romanticised and stereotyped and how distinctively each genre contributes towards establishing the destination image in its own particular way