The treatment of language in travel advisories as a covert tool of political sanction

Abstract

The safety-related contents in the travel advisories issued by the departments of foreign affairs stand out among the drivers of the perception of risk by international travellers. The aim of this paper is to identify keywords used in safety advice and to explore how such words are related to countries issuing the travel advice and to the risks identified in the destination country. A content analysis of the travel advisories issued by the five main tourist origin markets for Kenya (USA, UK, Germany, France and Italy) within a time span of five years is carried out. Both qualitative (text mining) and quantitative approaches (correspondence analysis) were used to analyse the narrative information. The results show substantial differences in the treatment of language between the countries as well as a persistent use of words related to risk and potential threats even though the reasons for them are no longer present.