Tourism Communication Across Time and Space: Languages, Cultural Mediations, and Historical Developments
May 18–19, 2026 | Treviso, Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche, Via Cornarotta, 7, 31100, Treviso (TV).
The PRIN 2020 project DIETALY (Destination Italy in Tourism Translation Over the Years) has
investigated how Italy has been represented, translated, and circulated as a destination for international
tourists across languages and media over the past century. Focusing in particular on the period from the
1920s to the 1950s, the project has examined the role of language and translation in shaping Italy’s
international image during years marked by Fascism, economic crisis, and post-war reconstruction. The
analysis has drawn on brochures, booklets, magazines, and related materials produced for English-speaking
audiences, placing institutional communication and multilingual mediation at the centre of historical inquiry.
A key outcome of the project is the DIETALY database: https://pric.unive.it/projects/dietaly/home,
a digital resource that systematises the metadata of a dispersed body of materials. By indexing more than 600
brochures, magazines, and promotional texts, the database offers searchable and cross-referenced metadata
that support customised research across bibliographic descriptions, tourism-specific categories, languages,
and genres, enabling users to trace discursive patterns and reconstruct how Italy was presented to foreign
publics. Beyond documenting Italy’s tourism promotion, the database also carries comparative potential: it
opens avenues for cross-national studies and invites dialogue with similar collections relating to other
countries, particularly within Europe, where parallel historical developments shaped the international
promotion of national identities.
Tourism studies have gained renewed significance in recent years, not only because tourism remains
a crucial economic and cultural sector but also because it offers a productive lens through which to examine
processes of identity-making, cultural translation, mediation, and heritage communication. Understanding
these dynamics requires perspectives that bring together linguistic, historical, and media-oriented
approaches. Another area that has gained increasing importance relates to the legal frameworks and national
and international regulatory contexts governing tourism and heritage communication, as well as their
implications for research practices, cultural mediation, and cross-border circulation.
On this basis, the conference Tourism Communication Across Time and Space: Languages,
Cultural Mediations, and Historical Developments seeks to offers an opportunity to engage with the
results of the DIETALY project, to extend its questions to other national and regional contexts, and to foster
wider interdisciplinary discussion on the processes through which tourist destinations are represented,
mediated, and imagined across time and space.
We welcome contributions that address the historical evolution of tourism communication, with
particular attention to Europe and the Mediterranean. Proposals may explore institutional, visual, and
discursive strategies that shaped tourism images across the 20th century, or examine how earlier practices
informed or transitioned into later developments in tourism communication.
Possible topics include (but are not limited to):
● Historical perspectives on tourism communication across languages and media
● Institutional tourism discourse and nation branding across time
● Heritage communication and the mediation of cultural identity
● Translation and multilingual mediation in the construction of tourist destinations
● The role of language professionals, mediators, and translators in tourism contexts
● Archives, corpora, and methodologies for historical tourism research
● Legal frameworks and regulatory contexts shaping tourism and heritage communication
● National and international regulations affecting research, dissemination, and access in heritage and
tourism contexts
● Legal, ethical, and institutional constraints on multilingual tourism communication
Submission guidelines
Abstract length: 250-300 words
Language: English
Include: 5 keywords + short bio (max 150 words)
Presentation format: 15-minute presentation + 10 minutes Q&A
Please submit abstracts through the following form: https://forms.gle/EGsY2JPD2BtHLgDDA
Deadline for submission: March 15, 2026
Notification of acceptance: April 1, 2026
Registration: April 1-30, 2026
Please note that participation is free of charge. No submission, registration, or attendance fees apply.
Selected bibliography
Agorni, M., & Parini, I. (Eds.). (2025). Destination Italy in English Translation and Language over the Years
(1919-1959) [Special issue]. Altre Modernità.
Aliano, D. (2018). American Travel Encounters with Fascist Italy: Being in transit. In R. Scapp & B. Seitz
(Eds.), Philosophy, Travel, and Place. Palgrave Macmillan (pp. 227-259)
Berrino, A. (2011). Storia del turismo in Italia. Il Mulino.
Cimorelli, D., & Villa, G. C. F. (Eds.). (2025). Visitate l’Italia! Promozione e pubblicità turistica 1900-1950. Silvana Editoriale.
Syrjämaa, T. (1997). Visitez l’Italie: Italian state tourist propaganda abroad, 1919-1943: Administrative
structure and practical realization. Turun yliopiston julkaisuja.
Zuelow, E. G. E. (2022). Tourism, Nations, and ationalism. In E. G. E. Zuelow & K. J. James (Eds.), The
Oxford Handbook of Tourism History. Oxford University Press.
