Book excerpt: This new volume illustrates how one of the most rapidly evolving industries in the world—travel and tourism—has transcended its immediate economic concerns and has become a major signifier for cultural patterns and cross-cultural communications. It discusses how the function of language has become the subject of scrutiny in the context of intellectual deliberation vis-à-vis travel and tourism. Drawing on discourse analytics and ethnographic approaches, this volume brings together perspectives from the lived experiences of residents, hosts, and ethnographers to explore the extent to which linguistic and cultural differences are identified, constructed, negotiated, and maintained in tourism encounters.