A Move Analysis of Travel Advertorials in a UK National Daily Newspaper
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Abstract
With borders reopening after the Covid-19 pandemic, the travel industry has employed different methods to attract potential customers. One of the popular promotional strategies is advertorials. This study examines 75 travel advertorials from the Telegraph, a national daily newspaper in the UK, to address two objectives – 1) to identify moves and steps used in these advertorials and 2) to investigate the moves’ typicality and cyclicity. The findings reveal six moves along with some steps. Apart from the headline to attract readers’ attentions, key components in travel advertorials include descriptions of the destination and service, reasons to buy the product and advertiser’s contact details. On the contrary, pricing incentives are not highlighted. The findings could be beneficial to both students and ESP practitioners especially those who are involved in writing promotional materials. Guidelines for travel advertorial writing could be developed for ESP classroom teaching and professional trainings whereby learners can grasp the organizational structure and be aware of the typicality and cyclicity of moves used in travel advertorials.
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References
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