The research project “Inclusive Slow Tourism: Route Tourism Between Digital Media and AI (SlowIT)" aims to explore and promote the integration of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) within the context of slow and route tourism. This interdisciplinary research will analyse how these themes are communicated in various digital environments, such as websites, social media platforms, user- generated content, and AI-generated texts. The focus is on developing effective communication strategies that emphasise sustainability and inclusivity, ultimately providing guidelines for better tourism practices.
It aims to develop guidelines for creating marketing materials that highlight the scenic and cultural richness of various routes, while promoting DEI principles in slow tourism to make route tourism accessible to a broader spectrum of visitors, including children and elderly people.
The research investigates how DEI and sustainability are constructed in digital texts related to route tourism through quantitative and qualitative methods. This involves the use of corpus linguistics tools, such as word frequencies, keywords, concordances, collocations, and clusters, to identify common linguistic and discursive patterns. Critical and multimodal discourse analysis will also be performed to explore the interplay between text and other semiotic resources, such as images, within their contexts. A literary approach that explores the narrative of travel and tourism as well as a philosophical one that looks at the impact of digital media and artificial intelligence on knowledge construction and dissemination will also add to the research a more comprehensive perspective.
The outcomes of this project aim to advance the understanding of how DEI and sustainability are communicated in the context of slow and route tourism. It will provide crucial insights into linguistic strategies, develop models for investigating DEI in tourism communication, and create resources and guidelines for training professionals and learners in the tourism sector. Furthermore, the project is in line with the goals of the European Agenda for Tourism 2030 and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in fostering sustainable and inclusive tourism practices.
The results of the project will be disseminated through conference presentations and scientific publications, with findings submitted to leading scientific journals. This interdisciplinary approach guarantees that the project will make a significant contribution to the fields of tourism, digital communication, and DEI, ultimately boosting a more inclusive and sustainable tourism discourse.