Article section

Article title
Contributor
Abstract
About article
DOI
Citation style
Copyright
Open access
References
Research Articles

A Systemic Functional-Linguistics Analysis of the Saudi Official Tourism Website

Authors

  • Abeer M. Alburaidi

Abstract

Tourism promotional websites are considered a significant tool for attracting and persuading tourists. In this regard, this study attempts to investigate how Saudi Tourism Authority attracts sightseers through the use of verbal elements on its official website. Data will be collected from the Saudi official tourism website (www.visitsaudi.com). Within the website, there are three pages that will be analyzed, the ‘About’ page of three popular destinations in Saudi Arabia (Riyadh, Diriyah, and AlUla) sections. From a Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) perspective, Mood system analysis is used to analyze the verbal features of the selected data. The findings indicate that the Saudi official tourism website systematically employs linguistic features, especially Mood choice to attract sightseers. Interestingly, it was found that the Visit Saudi was realized in declarative and imperative clauses, with no interrogative clauses.

Keywords:

Mood system, Saudi Arabia, Systemic functional linguistics, Tourism website

Article information

Journal

International Journal of Human Post-Edited AI Qualitative Data Analysis

Volume (Issue)

1(2), (2025)

Pages

Published

2025-12-31

How to Cite

M. Alburaidi, A. (2025). A Systemic Functional-Linguistics Analysis of the Saudi Official Tourism Website. International Journal of Human Post-Edited AI Qualitative Data Analysis, 1(2). https://researchpublication.org/index.php/ijhpaqda/article/view/19

References

Abuhjeeleh, M. (2019). Rethinking tourism in Saudi Arabia: Royal vision 2030 perspective. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, 8(5), 1–16.

Almurashi, W. (2016). An introduction to Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics. Journal for the Study of English Linguistics, 4(1), 70. https://doi.org/10.5296/jsel.v4i1.9423

Almushayqih, H. (2022). Portraying national images in political discourse: An appraisal analysis. [Master thesis, Qassim University].

Bloor, T., Bloor, M., & Bloor, T. (2004). The functional analysis of English. Great Britain: Arnold.

Buhalis, D., & Law, R. (2008). Progress in information technology and tourism management: 20 years on and 10 years after the Internet—The state of eTourism research. Tourism Management, 29(4), 609–623. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2008.01.005

Butt, D., Fahey, R., Feez, S., Spinks, S., & Yallop, C. (1995). Using functional grammar: An explorer’s guide. Sydney: National Centre for English Language Teaching Research, Macquarie University.

Cavia, J. F., Rovira, C., Díaz-Luque, P., & Cavaller, V. (2014). Web Quality Index (WQI) for official tourist destination websites. Proposal for an assessment system. Tourism Management Perspectives, 9, 5–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2013.10.003

Darong, H. C. (2022). It is all about clauses: Speech analysis using systemic functional linguistics theory. Englisia: Journal of Language, Education and Humanities, 10(1), 54. https://doi.org/10.22373/ej.v10i1.13029

Gebhard, M., & Accurso, K. (2020). Systemic functional linguistics. In A. C. Chapelle (Ed.), The encyclopedia of applied linguistics (pp. 1029–1037). Oxford: Blackwell.

Goshkheteliani, I., & Kalandia, A. (2022). Lingua-cultural peculiarities of tourism discourse and the perspective of its teaching. International Journal of Multilingual Education, (21), 31–52.

Hallett, R. W., & Kaplan-Weinger, J. (2010). Official tourism websites: A discourse analysis perspective. Channel View Publications.

Halliday, M. (1985). Introduction to functional grammar. London: Edward Arnold.

Halliday, M. (2004). An introduction to functional grammar. Hodder Education.

Halliday, M. K., & Matthiessen, M. I. (2004). An introduction to functional grammar (3rd ed.). Hodder Arnold.

Hameed, A., Jabeen, I., & Khan, A. (2020). Planning for transformation: A semantic-grammatical based discourse analysis of Saudi vision 2030. Arab World English Journal, 11(3), 212–225. https://doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol11no3.13

Hassan, R. (2017, September 22). Saudi Arabia witnessing a remarkable growth in tourism industry. Arab News. https://www.arabnews.com/node/1165866/saudi-arabia

Henderson, J. C. (2010). Religious tourism and its management: The Hajj in Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Tourism Research, 13(6), 541–552.

Huang, Z., & Yuan, L. (2017). Gender differences in tourism website usability: An empirical study. In Design, User Experience, and Usability: Understanding Users and Contexts (pp. 453–461). Springer International Publishing.

Isti’anah, A. (2020). Indonesian tourism discourse on www.indonesia.travel: Mood analysis. Langkawi Journal of the Association for Arabic and English, 6(2), 114. https://doi.org/10.31332/lkw.v0i0.1850

Jabeen, I., Hameed, A., & Afzal, N. (2022). The wake of modernistic tourism in the Kingdom: A multimodal analysis of online discourse. Journal of Education Culture and Society, 13(1), 385–401. https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs2022.1.385.401

Khan, G. A. (2017, July 17). Saudi Arabia launches new tourism initiatives within Vision 2030. Arab News. https://www.arabnews.com/node/1130646/saudi-

Koval, N., Kushka, B., Nagachevska, O., Smaglii, V., & Uhryn, L. (2023). Changing nature of English tourism discourse: A linguistic approach. Arab World English Journal (AWEJ), (Special Issue on Communication and Language in Virtual Spaces), 215–225.

Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading images: The grammar of visual design. Routledge.

Lehto, X., Kim, D., & Morrison, A. M. (2006). The effect of prior destination experience on online information search behaviour. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 6(2), 160–178. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.thr.6040053

Lim, F. V. (2018). Developing a systemic functional approach to teach multimodal literacy. Functional Linguistics, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40554-018-0066-8

Manca, E. (2016). Persuasion in tourism discourse: Methodologies and models. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Martin, J. R., & White, P. R. R. (2007). The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English. Palgrave Macmillan.

McDonald, D., & Woodward‐Kron, R. (2016). Member roles and identities in online support groups: Perspectives from corpus and systemic functional linguistics. Discourse & Communication, 10(2), 157–175. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481315615985

Mir, R. N., & Kulibi, T. A. (2023). Tourism as an engine for economic diversification: An exploratory study of Saudi Arabia’s tourism strategy and marketing initiatives. Saudi Journal of Business and Management Studies, 8(08), 186–201.

Papen, U. (2005). Exclusive, ethno and eco: Representations of culture and nature in tourism discourses in Namibia. In A. Pritchard & A. Jaworski (Eds.), Discourse, communication and tourism (pp. 79–97). Channel View Publications.

Putri, R. Y., & Laila, M. (2022). Mood analysis of written utterances in Indonesia’s Covid-19 vaccine article in online newspaper. NOTION: Journal of Linguistics, Literature, and Culture, 4(2), 85–93.

Rafik, H. (2023, September 6). Saudi Arabia: Tourism. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/saudi-arabia-tourism-hassan rafik

Salim, M. A., Ibrahim, N. A., & Hassan, H. (2018). Authenticating the tourist destination on the official tourism website of Indonesia: Multimodal perspective. Astra Salvensis – Revista de Istorie Si Cultura, 1, 333–343.

Salim, M., & Som, A. P. M. (2018). Shaping tourist destinations through language and visual elements on tourism websites: A tourism discourse perspective. International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7(4.34), 467. https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i4.34.26874

Saudi Vision 2030. (n.d.). https://www.vision2030.gov.sa/

Smith, M., & Robinson, M. (2006). Cultural tourism in a changing world: Politics, participation and (re)presentation. Channel View Publications eBooks.

Thompson, G., & Muntigl, P. (2008). Systemic functional linguistics: An interpersonal perspective. In G. Antos & E. Ventola (Eds.), Handbook of interpersonal communication (pp. 107–132). Mouton de Gruyter.

Xiang, Z., Magnini, V. P., & Fesenmaier, D. R. (2015). Information technology and consumer behavior in travel and tourism: Insights from travel planning using the internet. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 22, 244–249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2014.08.005

Downloads

Views

39

Downloads

8