Framing the New Normal in Tourism Discourse : A Focus on Air Travel

This article sets out to map the discursive geographies of the new normal in tourism, placing its focus on airlines’ communication after the COVID-19 crisis. Today, in the post-peak period, airlines are faced with new risk perceptions, forms of consumer behaviour and mobility trends. By means of a mixed-methods approach that focusses on linguistic cues and discursive frames identified with the support of an ad hoc textual corpus, this paper investigates how the enforced restrictions and required sanitary measures are explained and promotional messages addressed to customers by a number of major European airlines. The overview of a few salient linguistic and discursive strategies adopted on their corporate websites will show possible new attitudes and values in the world and words of air travel.