A study on tourism cultural features of the english and vietnamese people in some online travel advertisements from cross cultural perspective

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
----------------

NGUYỄN THỊ MINH PHƢƠNG

A STUDY ON TOURISM CULTURAL FEATURES OF THE
ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE PEOPLE IN SOME ONLINE TRAVEL
ADVERTISEMENTS FROM CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

Nghiên cứu về những Đặc điểm Văn hóa Du lịch của người Anh và người Việt
trong một số Quảng cáo Du lịch Điện tử từ Góc độ Giao tiếp Giao văn hóa

MA. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field

: English linguistics

Code

: 60220201

Hanoi - 2017


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
----------------

NGUYỄN THỊ MINH PHƢƠNG

A STUDY ON TOURISM CULTURAL FEATURES OF THE
ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE PEOPLE IN SOME ONLINE TRAVEL
ADVERTISEMENTS FROM CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

Nghiên cứu về những Đặc điểm Văn hóa Du lịch của người Anh và người Việt
trong một số Quảng cáo Du lịch Điện tử từ Góc độ Giao tiếp Giao văn hóa

MA. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field

: English linguistics

Code

: 60220201

Supervisor: Dr. Huỳnh Anh Tuấn

Hanoi - 2017


DECLARATION

I, Nguyễn Thị Minh Phương, hereby certify that the thesis “A Study on
Tourism Cultural Features of the English and Vietnamese People in some
Online Travel Advertisements from Cross-cultural Perspective” is

submitted for the partial fulfillment of the Degree of Master of Arts at the
Faculty of Graduate Studies - University of Languages and International
Studies - Vietnam National University, Hanoi. I also declare that this thesis is
the result of my own research and efforts and that it has not been submitted
for any other purposes.
Hanoi, 2017
Signature

Nguyễn Thị Minh Phƣơng

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my indebtedness and sincere gratitude
to my supervisor Dr. Huynh Anh Tuan for his invaluable guidance and great
support without which this thesis would not have been completed.
Besides, I am heartily thankful to all the lecturers and teachers of the
Faculty of Graduate Studies - University of Languages and International
Studies - Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable and
interesting lectures and assistance during my study at the university.
Last but not least, I send my special thanks to my husband, my family
and my friends who have provided abundant assistance and encouragement
while this work was in progress.

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ABSTRACT

This study aims at finding out travel cultural features of

the English

and Vietnamese people as linguistically represented in some online English
and Vietnamese advertisements. A comparison was made to find out the
similarities and differences between the tourism cultures of the two countries.
A combination of descriptive, comparative and contrastive method was used
to figure out typical features, similarities and differences in tourism culture of
the two countries from cross cultural perspective. The study analyses the
words, phrases and structures revealing tourism cultural features in the
advertisements in six categories: landscape, cuisine, activity, transportation,
accommodation and weather. The result reveals that there exist some
similarities and differences in tourism culture of the two countries as
linguistically represented in the advertisements.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION .......................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS...........................................................................................iv
PART A: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 1
1.

Rationale of the Study ........................................................................... 1

2.

Aims of the Study.................................................................................. 2

3.

Research Questions ............................................................................... 3

4.

Scope of the Study ................................................................................ 3

5.

Method of the Study .............................................................................. 3

6.

Analytical Framework ........................................................................... 4

7.

Design of the Study ............................................................................... 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT ...................................................................................... 6
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................ 6
1.1. Theoretical Background ......................................................................... 6
1.1.1. Advertising and Tourism ............................................................... 6
1.1.2. Culture and Tourism Culture ........................................................ 7
1.1.3. Tourism Language ........................................................................ 7

1.1.4. Cross-cultural Communication ..................................................... 8
1.2. Previous Related Studies ..................................................................... 10
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOY .............................................................................11
2.1. Research Questions .............................................................................. 11
2.2. Research Methods ................................................................................ 11
2.2.1. Method of Description .................................................................. 11
2.2.2. Methods of Comparison and Contrast .......................................... 12

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2.3. Data Source .......................................................................................... 14
2.4. Data Collection..................................................................................... 14
2.5. Data Analysis Framework .................................................................... 14
CHAPTER 3: TOURISM CULTURAL FEATURES OF THE ENGLISH
AND VIETNAMESE PEOPLE AS LINGUISTICALLY REPRESENTED
IN SOME ONLINE TRAVEL ADVERTISEMENTS .......................................21
3.1. Tourism Cultural Features of the English People as Linguistically
Represented in some Online Travel Advertisements .................................. 21
3.1.1. Tourism Cultural Features of the English People as Linguistically
Represented in Landscape....................................................................... 21
3.1.2. Tourism Cultural Features of the English People as Linguistically
Represented in Cuisine ............................................................................ 23
3.1.3. Tourism Cultural Features of the English People as Linguistically
Represented in Activity............................................................................ 24
3.1.4. Tourism Cultural Features of the English People as Linguistically
Represented in Accommodation .............................................................. 26
3.1.5. Tourism Cultural Features of the English People as Linguistically
Represented in Transportation................................................................ 26
3.1.6. Tourism Cultural Features of the English People as Linguistically

Represented in Weather .......................................................................... 27
3.1.7. Tourism Cultural Features of the English People as Linguistically
Represented in Other Features ............................................................... 28
3.2. Tourism Cultural Features of the Vietnamese People as Linguistically
Represented in some Online Travel Advertisements .................................. 31
3.2.1. Tourism Cultural Features of the Vietnamese People as
Linguistically Represented in Landscape ............................................... 31
3.2.2. Tourism Cultural Features of the Vietnamese People as
Linguistically Represented in Cuisine..................................................... 32

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3.2.3. Tourism Cultural Features of the Vietnamese People as
Linguistically Represented in Activity..................................................... 33
3.2.4. Tourism Cultural Features of the Vietnamese People as
Linguistically Represented in Accommodation ....................................... 34
3.2.5. Tourism Cultural Features of the Vietnamese People as
Linguistically Represented in Transportation ........................................ 35
3.2.6. Tourism Cultural Features of the Vietnamese People as
Linguistically Represented in Weather ................................................... 37
3.2.7. Tourism Cultural Features of the Vietnamese People as
Linguistically Represented in Other Features ........................................ 38
CHAPTER 4: SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES IN THE TOURISM
CULTURAL FEATURES OF THE ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
PEOPLE AS LINGUISTICALLY REPRESENTED IN SOME ONLINE
TRAVEL ADVERTISEMENTS ............................................................................42
4.1. Similarities in Tourism Cultural Features of the English and
Vietnamese People as Linguistically Represented in some Online Travel
Advertisements ............................................................................................ 42

4.1.1. Similarities in Tourism Cultural Features of the English and
Vietnamese People as Linguistically Represented in Landscape ........... 42
4.1.3. Similarities of Tourism Cultural Features of the English and
Vietnamese People as Linguistically Represented in Activity ................ 46
4.1.4. Similarities in Tourism Cultural Features of the English and
Vietnamese People as Linguistically Represented in Accommodation .. 48
4.1.5. Similarities in Tourism Cultural Features of the English and
Vietnamese People as Linguistically Represented in Transportation .... 49
4.1.6. Similarities in Tourism Cultural Features of the English and
Vietnamese People as Linguistically Represented in Weather ............... 50
4.1.7. Similarities in Tourism Cultural Features of the English and
Vietnamese People as Linguistically Represented in other Features ..... 50

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4.2. Differences in Tourism Cultural Features of the English and
Vietnamese People as Linguistically Represented in some Online Travel
Advertisements ............................................................................................ 51
4.2.1. Differences in Tourism Cultural Features of the English and
Vietnamese People as Linguistically Represented in Landscape ........... 51
4.2.2. Differences in Tourism Cultural Features of the English and
Vietnamese People as Linguistically Represented in Cuisine ................ 53
4.2.3. Differences in Tourism Cultural Features of the English and
Vietnamese People as Linguistically Represented in Activity ................ 55
4.2.4. Differences in Tourism Cultural Features of the English and
Vietnamese People as Linguistically Represented in Accommodation .. 57
4.2.5. Differences in Tourism Cultural Features of the English and
Vietnamese People as Linguistically Represented in Transportation .... 58
4.2.6. Differences in Tourism Cultural Features of the English and

Vietnamese People as Linguistically Represented in Weather ............... 59
4.2.7. Differences in Tourism Cultural Features of the English and
Vietnamese People as Linguistically Represented in Other Features .... 59
PART C: CONCLUSION ........................................................................................61
1.

Recapitulation ..................................................................................... 61

2.

Discussion ........................................................................................... 63

3.

Limitations of the Study ...................................................................... 64

4.

Suggestions for Further Studies .......................................................... 64

REFERENCES ...........................................................................................................65

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PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the Study
Tourism is one of the world's largest industries and one of its fastest
growing economic sectors. The more the society develops, the better the
quality of life becomes. As living standards have risen in Vietnam, people are

spending more money travelling. There are more and more people who
choose travelling as a kind of their favorite entertainment. In the past, travel
typically took the form of visiting relatives at their home, or taking a company
trip to the beach with one's colleagues. More recently, however, travel has
become more diverse as people look forward to enriching their lifestyles. This
trend is helping to redefine Vietnam's tourism industry.
Since the tourist industry has become one of the most important
economic influences and also one of the fastest growing industries of modern
times, it needs certain advertising and public relation efforts to offer various
services to the travelling public and encourage people to travel to specific
places. Today advertisements are more and more used by organizations to
promote their products and services. They are the main support for
communication in business and the main link between the companies and
their customers. Moreover, the essence of advertising is convincing people
what a product is meant for them. Advertisements supply people with all
information including transport, accommodation, cuisine, and so on about
destinations. Therefore, they can decide where they would like to go. So
according to Levitt‟s theory (1983), it would be really easy for the companies
to persuade the customers all around the world to buy their products.
It cannot be denied that advertising makes a great contribution to the
development of tourism industry. Only by dint of advertisements can a

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destination be known and become famous not only in its country but also in all
over the world.
Every country has its own habits or hobbies of travelling. As many
people agree that culture affects everything we do (Neil Payne, 2004). This
applies to all areas of human life and each country and each region has its

own culture. So it means that we all have different perceptions of the world
and that we will not react the same way to the same things. In travelling, it is
habits, hobbies and viewpoints of travelling that constitute tourism culture of
each country. It is likely that the English people and Vietnamese people share
some common tourism features, they have their own tourism culture.
From these reasons, I decided do research into tourism cultural features
of the English and Vietnamese people linguistically represented in some
online advertisements to find out the similarities and differences in six
features

which

include

landscape,

cuisine,

activity,

transportation,

accommodation and weather of the two countries. It is hoped that the findings
of the study might help tour organizers have strategies to attract tourists.
2. Aims of the Study
The aims of the thesis are:
- To study tourism cultural features of the English and Vietnamese people as
linguistically represented in some online travel advertisements from crosscultural perspective.
- To find out the similarities and differences in tourism culture between the
English and Vietnamese people as linguistically represented in some online

travel advertisements.
- To help tourism organizers know the culture of tourism of the two
countries to have strategies to attract tourists.

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3. Research Questions
3.1.

What are the tourism cultural features of the English and Vietnamese

people as linguistically represented in some online travel advertisements from
cross- cultural perspective?
3.2.

What are the similarities and differences in the tourism cultural features

of the English and Vietnamese people as linguistically represented in some
online travel advertisements?
4. Scope of the Study
The scope of this study is the tourism cultural features, similarities and
differences in the tourism cultural features of the English and Vietnamese
people as linguistically represented in some online travel advertisements.
The advertisements are gathered from four English and Vietnamese
famous websites which are Sunday Express (www.express.co.uk), The
Telegraph (www.telegraph.co.uk), Thong tin du lich (baodulich.net.vn) and
Du lich Viet Nam (baodulich.com).
These advertisements are written in English, aimed at British readership
which may include people from England, Scotland and Wales.

5. Method of the Study
To achieve the aims stated, methods of description, comparison and
contrast are used to highlight the similarities and differences in the tourism
cultural features of the English and Vietnamese people as linguistically
represented in some online travel advertisements.
Description is used to find out the cultural features of the English and
Vietnamese people as linguistically represented in some online travel
advertisements.

3


Comparison and contrast are used to highlight the similarities and
differences in the tourism cultural features of the English and Vietnamese
people as linguistically represented in some online travel advertisements
discovered from cross-cultural perspective.
Since this study dwells largely on the practical aspects of cross-cultural
communication, the main method of analyzing data is qualitative in which the
units of analysis are words, phrases, sentence structures showing the tourism
cultures of the two countries as linguistically represented in some online travel
advertisements. The results will be discussed to find out the similarities and
differences in tourism culture of the English and Vietnamese people.
The data of the thesis are travel advertisements in some English and
Vietnamese online travel newspapers.
6. Analytical Framework
The research is devoted to studying tourism cultural features of the
English and Vietnamese people to find out the similarities and differences in
the tourism cultural features of the English and Vietnam as linguistically
represented in some online travel advertisements from cross-cultural
perspective. My focus is on words, phrases and structures about tourism

cultural features of the English and Vietnamese people including six features:
landscape, cuisine, activity, accommodation, transportation and weather.
7. Design of the Study
The paper consists of three parts.
Part A, Introduction, covers rationale, aims, research questions, scope,
methods, and design of the study.
Part B, Development, is composed of four chapters:

4


Chapter one deals with theoretical discussions.
Chapter two is devoted to the methodology.
Chapter three presents tourism cultural features of the English and
Vietnamese people as linguistically represented in some online travel
advertisements.
Chapter four compares tourism cultural features of the English and
Vietnamese people to find out the similarities and differences in tourism
cultural features of the English and Vietnamese people as linguistically
represented in some online travel advertisements.
Part C, Conclusion, offers the overview of major findings and
suggestions for further study.

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Theoretical Background
This part presents the theoretical backgrounds related to the topic which

are advertising, tourism, culture and tourism culture, language of tourism and
cross-cultural communication.
1.1.1. Advertising and Tourism
There are many definitions of advertising. Advertising is considered to
be the activity or profession of producing information for promoting the sale
of commercial products or services. Advertising is defined as a linguistic and
social activity because it depends on a language as the medium to accomplish
a social activity. An advertisement is “a public notice designed to spread
information with a view to promoting the sales of marketable goods and
services” (Cook, 1992). Advertising helps to introduce a new product or
service to customers. It creates demand of buying things or service.
According to Widdowson (1996), human language “serves as a means of
cognition and communication: it enables us to think for ourselves and to
cooperate with other people in our community. It can be concluded that
advertising is a kind of communication between the creator of advertisement
(in fact, the copywriter who substitutes the producer/seller and transfers his
ideas into advertisements), and the consumer.
It can be seen that, the meaning of advertising is to transmit a product to
the reader, in other words, the advertiser is trying to persuade the reader or the
tourist to come to the destination. This shows advertising is a kind of
communication with its own principles. The code of the language has to be
known by all participants of the communication.
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Today, tourism is a fastest growing industry in the world. Advertising
plays a vital and important role in promoting tourism. In today‟s world,
communication network has become more efficient and informative with the
use of the internet. Online advertisements can promote tourism by projecting
a destination so that readers have the ideas and information to choose where

they should go and which tour they should book.
1.1.2. Culture and Tourism Culture
According to Samovar (2009), culture is “a complex whole which
includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, customs and any other
capabilities and habits acquired by man as member of society”. Zimmermann,
in the website defines culture as the
“characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, defined by
everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts”.
Hofstede (2005:4) states that culture is “the collective programming of the
mind which distinguishes the member of one group or category of people
from others”.
One way of dividing people in the world is by their nationalities.
Cultural differences and similarities may exist among different nationalities.
Tourism culture of a country refers to habits, hobbies and viewpoints of
people in that country when they travel. Every country has its own tourism
culture because of differences in belief, custom, language, religion, cuisine,
life style, habit and so on.
1.1.3. Tourism Language
In everyday speech, we often hear expressions like language of music,
language of computing, language of civil engineering etc., and we know that
these various fields have ways of communicating with us. In the book “The

7


language of Tourism”, Dann (1996) states that tourism has its own language
in advertising. He suggests that written language and pictures in travel
advertisements are a specific language.
The language of tourism has become pervasive and familiar in our
society since it is part of a promotional language used by the mass media and

replicated in conversation. Indeed, tourism uses language to manipulate
reality and turning an anonymous place into a tourist destination. Language
becomes the most powerful driving force in tourism promotion, whose aim is
“to persuade, lure, woo and seduce millions of human beings, and, in so
doing, convert them from potential into actual clients” (Dann, 1996).
Tourism language includes language in the following fields:
Geography: the language of geography describes destination, surroundings
Economics: tourism market and strategies of advertising tours
Sociology: concepts of factors in promoting tourism development and types of
tourism
Psychology: tourists‟ feeling of destinations
And some other fields such as history, cuisine, architect, religions and so
on. Each field listed above is an aspect of tourism constituting a series of
possible language.
1.1.4. Cross-cultural Communication
The phrase cross-cultural communication describes the ability to
successfully form, foster, and improve relationships with members of a
culture different from one's own. It is based on knowledge of many factors,
such as the other culture's values, perceptions, manners, social structure, and
decision-making practices, and an understanding of how members of the
group communicate verbally, non-verbally, in person, in writing, and in
various business and social contexts. According to Richards et al. (1997:94),

8


culture refers to the total set of beliefs, attitudes, customs, behavior, social
habits, etc. of the members of a particular society. From this definition,
culture can be understood as a specific community. Every community has its
own values to distinguish it with other communities. When people from

different cultural backgrounds exchange ideas, information etc., we call it
cross-cultural communication. People in the same culture understand each
other‟s behavior, customs. However, people in different cultures may interpret
others‟ speech or behavior according to his or her own cultural conventions
and expectations. As cross-cultural communication theory begins with the
assumptions of cultural variations. These differences act as barriers to
communication. It is realized that there are often more problems in crosscultural communication than in communication between people of the same
cultural background. Thus, if the cultural conventions of the participants are
widely different, misinterpretations and misunderstandings can easily arise,
even resulting in a total breakdown of communication. Therefore, knowing
the differences and recognizing the potential effects on communication, the
communicator will be more sensitive to the fact and accommodate such
differences. This means that in order to understand each other, communicators
should have something in common in their backgrounds that will enable them
to perceive the stimuli similarly. Communication is intricately woven into the
culture. Culture fosters or promotes communication process.
According to Scollon & Scollon (2001:13) intercultural communication
considers communication which has the added characteristics of cultural
„variance‟ between those people involved, in one or more areas, such as:
values, beliefs, thought patterns, practices (including language) and other
habits of behavior. Cultural variance can be salient in that it can create
differing expectations and interpretations of interactions between people. In
this research, the tourism culture is shown in the habit, hobby and viewpoint
of travelling of the English and Vietnamese people as linguistically
9


represented in some online advertisements.
1.2. Previous Related Studies
Nowadays, when the quality of life is improved, people tend to spend

more time and money travelling and advertising is one of the quickest and
most effective ways to introduce destinations to tourists. Every country has
different features in tourism because of its different customs, cultures and life
styles. Therefore, tour organizers are advised to study travel advertisements to
understand the travelling culture of people in their country so that they can
have suitable strategies to attract tourists. In the past few years, many people
have done research into tourism advertisements.
There are some approaches to study travel advertisements. Some writers
studied the systematic structure. For example, Nguyen Thi Dieu Ha (2011)
studied similarities and differences in systematic structure of English and
Vietnamese tourist advertisements. She focused on four main parts of an
advertisement which are headline, beginning part, developing part and ending
part. Another approach is research on a discourse analysis of tourism
advertisements in English and Vietnamese. A typical research was carried out
by Ho Thi Thien Trang (2011). In her research, she studied the layout,
cohesive devices and stylistic devices of English and Vietnamese tourism
advertisements.
There are some other approaches carried out in tourist advertisements. For
example, the sentence patterns used in travel advertisements on English and
Vietnamese websites were done by Phung Ngoc Bich (2008). A comparative
study of some discourse features between English and Vietnamese tourist
advertisements was studied by Nguyen Thu Huong (2001). An approach to
contrastive discourse analysis of travel advertisements based on the theory of
functional grammar was carried out by Ton Nu My Nhat (2005).

10


CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
The study aims at finding the tourism cultural features of the English and

Vietnamese people as linguistically represented in some online travel
advertisements so there are some issues that need to be considered such as
questions and methods of the research. How to collect and analyze the data
are also discussed in this chapter.
2.1. Research Questions
2.1.1. What are the tourism cultural features of the English and Vietnamese
people as linguistically represented in some online travel advertisements?
2.1.2. What are the similarities and differences in the tourism cultural features
of the English and Vietnamese people as linguistically represented in some
online travel advertisements?
2.2. Research Methods
2.2.1. Method of Description
The first method which is used to find out the tourism cultural features of
the English and Vietnamese people as linguistically represented in some
online advertisements is description. The researcher describes the ways the
advertisers use to express the six aspects which include the landscape, cuisine,
activity, accommodation, transportation and weather, and what kind of words,
phrases, structures are used to highlight the cultural features of the English
and Vietnamese people. As in an advertisement about Phan Rang, the author
describes the beauty of the landscape with descriptive adjectives such as: “bát
ngát, xanh um, vàng ươm”.
“Hồi trước cứ mỗi lần đi tàu lửa ngang qua khu Phan Rang, Tháp Chàm nhìn
những cánh đồng nho bát ngát xanh um dưới cái nắng vàng ươm như đổ lửa

11


của vùng đất Ninh Thuận, tôi lại ước có ngày nào đó mình được dạo bước
dưới những cánh đồng nho kia để hái nho ăn”
(Whenever I pass Phan Rang, Thap Cham, looking at vast green grape fields

under the sunshine in Ninh Thuan, I wish I would have a chance to walk
under the grape fields and pick up grapes to eat.)
2.2.2. Methods of Comparison and Contrast
If the method of description is used to find out the tourism cultural
features of the English and Vietnamese people, comparison and contrast are
used to figure out the similarities and differences in the tourism culture of the
two countries. Comparison and contrast are used to highlight similarities and
differences in travel culture at the same categories. Six categories are studied
which include landscape, cuisine, activity, accommodation, transportation and
weather. Let‟s take an example of the comparison and contrast of landscape
between the English and the Vietnamese people.
“Porto-Vecchio is the ideal base for exploring southern Corsica, an area
blessed with some of the most breathtaking beaches in Europe and
spectacular mountain scenery, all in close proximity.”
(Advertisement about Corsica)
The English people always describe the landscape and surroundings
with descriptive adjectives. They care about the beauty of the place where
they can enjoy the nature. It can be seen that the English people want to visit
places which are ancient, religious and romantic.
Vietnamese people usually use a legend to introduce a landscape because
most of destinations are related to a legend. As a matter of fact that
Vietnamese people have experienced several thousand years of history. Every

12


region is attached to history. One of the cultural features of the Vietnamese
people is to look back to history. Understanding this matter, the advertiser
always tries to find the legend related to destinations to attract the tourist.
For example: “Truyền thuyết về hoa Dã quỳ, kể rằng: “Ngày xửa ngày

xưa, trên cao nguyên LangBiang - Lâm Viên (Đà Lạt ngày nay) có hai bộ tộc
hằn thù nhau, cấm tiệt trai gái không được lấy nhau, ai vi phạm sẽ bị xử trảm.
Năm ấy, chàng Lang (bộ tộc Chill) khôi ngô tài giỏi, yêu say đắm nàng Biang
(bộ tộc Lạch) xinh đẹp hiền thục nhất vùng. Họ nguyện thề mãi mãi bên nhau.
Khi bị phát giác, cả hai đã chấp nhận cái chết để giữ trọn lời thề. Điều kỳ lạ
là, bên hai nấm mồ ấy, mọc lên một loài cây hoang dại, cứ tháng 11 hằng năm
(thời điểm hành quyết) nở hoa vàng rực, báo hiệu mùa khô đến. Sau này,
người đời xót thương đặt tên loài hoa ấy là Dã quỳ. Đã có kẻ nhẫn tâm (vì
không yêu được nàng) chặt bỏ hết Dã quỳ quăng đi thật xa. Nhưng, Dã quỳ
vẫn sống, mọc lan khắp núi rừng Tây Nguyên”.
(Advertisement about Da Lat)
(A legend of wild sunflowers says that there were two hostile tribes which
forbade men and women from the two tribes to get married. Anyone who broke
the law would be killed. A handsome and intelligent man named Lang (of the
Chill tribe) fell in love with the most beautiful and elegant woman (of the Lach
tribe). They swore to be with each other forever. When their love was revealed,
they chose decided to commit suicide to keep their oath. The strange thing is
that there is a tree which blossoms yellow flowers in November (the time of
execution). People name the flower wind sunflower. Some merciless men who
couldn‟t have her love cut down all the trees. However, the wind sunflower
trees keep living and spreading Tay Nguyen‟s forests.”

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2.3. Data Source
The data in this research is advertisements from four online travel
websites. The researcher uses four websites which include two English
websites and two Vietnamese websites which are Sunday Express
(www.express.co.uk), The Telegraph (www.telegraph.co.uk), Thong tin du

lich (baodulich.net.vn) and Du lich Viet Nam (baodulich.com).
2.4. Data Collection
In this study, the data collected were words, phrases and structures
from advertisements from four travel websites. Words, phrases and structures
are used to highlight the cultural features of the English and Vietnamese
people.
2.5. Data Analysis Framework
The research studies the travel advertisements including linguistic aspect
such as words, phrases, structures and pictures and visual aspect such as
pictures.
The research focuses on the practical aspects of cross-cultural
communication so the main method of analyzing data is qualitative. As a
matter of fact, qualitative research is to have better understanding about how
people interpret their experiences, how they construct their worlds, and what
meaning they attribute to their experiences (Merriam, 2009: 5). Qualitative
research involves collecting information about personal experiences,
introspection, life story, interviews, observations, historical interactions and
visual text which are significant moments and meaningful in people‟s lives”.
According to Patton (1996:4) qualitative research is an attempt to grasp the
unique interactions in a particular situation, not to predict what might occur
but rather to understand in depth the meaning brought by the participants

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regarding what is happening to them at the moment. In this research, the
writer bases on her interaction with some online travel advertisements and her
experiences in travelling to find out tourism cultural features, similarities and
differences in tourism cultural features of the English and Vietnamese people
as linguistically represented in some online travel advertisements.

In this research, words, phrases and structures are studied with the aim of
finding cultural features of the English and Vietnamese people when they travel.
For example: “Be a daredevil and go tobogganing. Check out the new 3 km
toboggan track with its exciting turns.
Go ice skating. The impressive rink is open daily from 4.30 pm-10 pm.”
(Advertisement about Obergurgl)
The English people tend to use imperative when talking about activities that
tourists should do when they visit a destination.
The data in this research is advertisements from four online travel
websites. The researcher uses four websites which include two English
websites and two Vietnamese websites which are Sunday Express
(www.express.co.uk),

The

Telegraph

(www.telegraph.co.uk),

baodulich.net.vn and baodulich.com. It is pointed out from all the
advertisements that there are six main issues that every reader always cares
for when they read an advertisement which are landscape, cuisine, activity,
accommodation, transportation and weather. These aspects appear in any
advertisements. Those are the reasons why journalists fosus on these aspects
to study whenever they want to advertise any destinations. The following
examples (one advertisement in English and one advertisement in
Vietnamese) show six aspects which include landscape, cuisine, activity,
accommodation, transportation and weather.

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Example 1: In an advertisement about Nevis in the Caribbean, all the
above issues are illustrated as follow:
Landscape: “The sand is golden and velvety underfoot, the sea is like
liquid turquoise, the only noise the whooshing melody of the waves.”
Cuisine: “The signature drink there is the killer bee which fully lives up
to its name, a cocktail of pepper, honey, passionfruit and rum.”
Activity: “Nevis offers rainforest hikes, horse riding, water sports,
kayaking.
I know this because I did the lot. I even had a go at paddle-boarding,
which entails standing on a surfboard as you propel yourself by paddle.” Or
“The day began with yoga on the beach, instructed by the very capable
David”.
Accommodation and transportation: “Western & Oriental (020 7666
1234/western oriental.com) offers seven nights from £1,580pp (four sharing a
two-bedroom villa), room only. Price includes return flights from London
Gatwick to St Kitts, private transfers from St Kitts to Nevis. Nevis
tourism: nevisisland.com”
Weather: “Thanks to the volcano, Nevis has thermal hot springs, whose
properties cure many ailments.” And “The springs are open streams except for
a small covered pool for women. You submerge yourself for as long as you
can stand the heat and the aches should melt away.”
Every advertisement supplies the reader with all these kinds of
information so that the reader can have enough information to prepare for
their trip. Let‟s see these issues in a Vietnamese advertisement.

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