The Tourist Blog: Between Personal Travelogue and Communication for Valorising Cultural Heritage

Abstract

In the context of the specifics of tourism discourse and communication through blogs, the paper presents an analysis of the image of the cultural heritage of the municipality of Kazanlak in 30 publications in French-language tourist blogs from the last ten years. The various discursive strategies and linguistic tools that can be identified in these texts are explored through the prism of their contribution to structuring a presentation that goes beyond the story of personal travel and emphasizes authenticity, identity and axiological charge, aesthetic value and the invitation to discover alterity in the described tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Elements that bring the discourse thus constructed closer to a communication that valorises cultural property. Thus, beyond the possibility of outlining the image of cultural heritage perceived by the foreign tourist, useful with a view to the efforts to promote it, the issue of the foreign tourist blog as a potential interesting component of communication campaigns in the field of cultural tourism deserves attention.