TOURISM DISCOURSE AND LINGUISTIC FEATURES IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF MEANING AND COMMUNITY IDENTITY THROUGH BILINGUAL HALAL FOOD STORYTELLING: A CASE STUDY OF MIN BURI, BANGKOK

Abstract

          This article aimed to 1) analyze the tourism discourse manifested in bilingual halal food narratives in the Min Buri community, Bangkok; 2) analyze the linguistic features used to construct meaning in these narratives; and 3) examine the representation of community identity through the bilingual halal food narratives in the context of community-based tourism. This qualitative study employed tourism discourse analysis and content analysis. The units of analysis comprised bilingual halal food narratives in Thai and English drawn from the book A Bilingual Halal Food Storytelling Book for Community-Based Tourism in Min Buri District, Bangkok. The data were purposively selected, covering all three sections of the book: The Heritage of Min Buri, The Essence of Halal Ingredients, and The Halal Food Trail. The findings were divided into three parts. First, three major forms of tourism discourse were identified: image building, romanticizing, and persuasion. Second, the linguistic features included vocabulary related to culture and halal food, descriptive and explanatory sentence structures, and language functions for providing information, persuading readers, and creating imagery. Third, the findings showed that tourism discourse, constructed through these linguistic features, created cultural meanings and represented the Min Buri community’s identity in three dimensions: local history, local wisdom, and Muslim culture. Together, these dimensions constructed a representation of Min Buri as a distinctive destination for cultural and halal food tourism.