The relevance of traditional languages for the tourism experience Yvonne Unterpertinger Student registration number: 01516213 Strategic Management MASTER THESIS Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in Strategic Management At the Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck Supervisor: Univ.- Prof. Dr. Mike PETERS Department of Strategic Management, Marketing and Tourism The University of Innsbruck School of Management Innsbruck, May 2021 This master’s thesis “The relevance of traditional languages for the tourism experience” was co-supervised by Dott.ssa Mag. Serena Lonardi. ____________________________________ Yvonne Unterpertinger Acknowledgments First, I would like to thank my supervisor Dott.ssa Mag. Serena Lonardi for always being available for my thousands of questions. I would also like to thank Univ.- Prof. Dr. Mike Peters for all the helpful advice and suggestions he shared with his students. Thanks to the guests who agreed to do this interview series and participated with such great interest and motivation. Lastly, I would like to thank my family and friends who have always been there to help and advise me. Thank you, mom and dad, for always affirming and encouraging me and for always finding the time to help me. Thank you, Felix, for always listening to my insecurities and for always being there for me. Abstract Cultural tourism has grown and developed in the last decades. Tourists no longer want to just vacation and relax, but to get to know the culture and way of life of the locals. In the studied region, South Tyrol, this can be seen especially because of the linguistic minorities living there. It is well known that the traditional language of a place plays an important role for its inhabitants and their culture. On the other hand, however, there is little knowledge about visitors' perceptions of traditional language in this regard. The research is carried out in the context of South Tyrolean tourism and the focus was set on the traditional Ladin language, mainly spoken by a small community in South Tyrol. Using qualitative interviews, tourists of the German and Italian language groups were asked about their perception of traditional language in South Tyrol. The study shows that visitors highly value the local culture and the traditional language of a holiday destination. The traditions, foods, and friendly attitude of the locals make guests feel at home. It turned out that it is also in the traveler’s interest to preserve this culture and language. The sound of the Ladin language has been perceived by the subjects as very soft and appealing. Furthermore, many positive emotions are associated with the traditions in South Tyrol, which have caused many experiences to become firmly anchored in the memories of the guests. It is precisely these emotionally charged experiences that bring guests back to the destination. KEYWORDS tourism, tourism in South Tyrol, cultural tourism, tradition, culture, traditional language, memorable experiences Table of Contents List of Figures .......................................................................................................................... III List of Tables ............................................................................................................................ III 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 4 1.1 Problem Statement ............................................................................................................ 5 1.2 Research Objectives ......................................................................................................... 6 1.3 Structure of the Thesis ...................................................................................................... 7 2. Theoretical Background ......................................................................................................... 8 2.1 Cultural Tourism............................................................................................................... 8 2.1.1 Intangible Heritage and Traditional Language ........................................................ 11 2.1.2 The Ladins and their Traditional Language ............................................................. 18 2.1.3 Conclusion: Up- and Downsides of Cultural Tourism ............................................ 21 2.2 Customer Experience in Tourism ................................................................................... 23 2.3 Tourism in South Tyrol .................................................................................................. 28 2.4 Summary and Outlook .................................................................................................... 31 3. Methods ................................................................................................................................ 32 3.1 Data Collection ............................................................................................................... 33 3.2 Data Analysis .................................................................................................................. 41 4. Results .................................................................................................................................. 45 4.1 Travel Motivation ........................................................................................................... 45 4.2 Memorable Experiences ................................................................................................. 49 4.3 Culture Awareness .......................................................................................................... 52 4.4 Traditional Language ...................................................................................................... 54 4.5 Involvement .................................................................................................................... 55 5. Discussion ............................................................................................................................ 56 6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 64 I 6.1 Limitations ...................................................................................................................... 65 6.2 Further Research Implications ........................................................................................ 65 6.3 Theoretical Contribution................................................................................................. 67 6.4 Implications for Tourist Destinations ............................................................................. 67 6. Reference List ...................................................................................................................... 72 7. Appendix .............................................................................................................................. 87 II List of Figures Figure 1: A model of Culture, tourism, attractiveness, and competitiveness (Richards, 2010) .................................................................................................................................................. 10 Figure 2: The practices of cultural tourism (Richards, 2018) .................................................. 16 Figure 3: Market orientation vs Product orientation (Pechlaner & Sauerwein, 20029 ............ 30 Figure 4: Screenshot Codes MAXQDA ................................................................................... 44 Figure 5: Most valuable Aspects of Travel Motivation ........................................................... 49 Figure 6: Rating memorable Experiences German .................................................................. 51 Figure 7: Rating memorable Experiences Italian ..................................................................... 52 Figure 8: Touchpoints of Culture and traditional Language .................................................... 59 Figure 9: Use of traditional language in destination websites (Kronplatz, 2021) .................... 69 Figure 10: Traditional geographic expression (Rennradreisen von quäldich.de- Würzjoch., 2021) ......................................................................................................................................... 69 List of Tables Table 1: Language Ecology of Val Badia adapted from Dell’Aquila & Iannàccaro (2006) ... 20 Table 2: Components of the Tourist Experience, adapted from Kim, Ritchie & McCormick (2012) ....................................................................................................................................... 25 Table 3: Types of interview questions with examples, adapted from Kvale (1996, pp. 133-5) .................................................................................................................................................. 37 Table 4: Demographics of interview partner ............................................................................ 39 Table 5: Coding Structure ........................................................................................................ 43 Table 6: Main Topics and important Quotations ..................................................................... 63 III 1. Introduction In recent years, tourism has increased worldwide and thus