Reviewing the Content of European Countries’ Official Tourism Websites: A Neo/Post-Fordist Perspective

Abstract

The content of the EU28 Destination Management Organisations’ (DMOs’) official tourism websites is studied to understand how each country is promoting its online position and image, and whether this is compatible with the new forms of neo/post-Fordism consumption. The research incorporates critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a method to analyse the content of the websites for tourism promotion. Today, destinations struggle to portray a unique image in terms of their natural, historical and cultural characteristics and to be ahead of the competition. This paper aims to bring together the 27 EU member states and the United Kingdom’s (EU28) DMOs’ official tourism websites and review their content. The study uses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with the aim of identifying the EU member states’ written web communication with potential visitors and to understand how each country is represented on the web in relation to neo/post-Fordism. The results of the study suggest that the EU28 are positioned online with website content to urge travellers to visit their country and gain constructive experiences within the remits of neo/post-Fordist characteristics. The paper follows an original approach in using CDA of EU28 official website online content in relation to neo/post-Fordist remits of production.

Keywords

• EU28
• critical discourse analysis
• official tourism websites
• online content
• neo/post-Fordism