Minority Languages as a Resource for Tourism Promotion on the Web: The Case of Some Minority Communities in Italy

Minority languages have been the subject of a rich literature in the field of the sociolinguistics of tourism and a number of works have underlined that they have been increasingly used in tourism promotion in the last few decades as they convey overtones evoking authenticity. Travel websites do not only provide a first glance at a destination for potential guests, but they are also part of the tourist experience because they introduce visitors to relevant contents related to specific places. In view of this, in websites of a destination where a minority language is spoken the use of the local variety could be particularly relevant in order to promote a specific place as offering an immersion into a unique cultural experience. The present article addresses the question how ten minority communities in Italy mobilize their local languages for self-representation purposes within their tourism websites