Risk and Safety on Cruise Ships: Communicative Strategies for COVID-19

The cross-cultural study presented in this chapter explores the websites of five different cruise lines (MSC, Costa Crociere, Royal Caribbean, NCL and Celebrity Cruises) to understand how health and safety discourse is rendered in this sector of the tourism industry. The economic crisis triggered by the pandemic has had a cascading impact on the tourism industry. Specifically, cruises can be overcrowded spaces, heightening the risk of spreading viruses. Drawing on investigations of the language of tourism and cruises, the chapter examines how cruise lines’ websites talk about risk, safety, and prevention. Through discourse analysis, the chapter compares examples of both written texts and non-verbal content (images, videos, colours) and scrutinizes cross-cultural elements and the role of images in localizing the message across the different languages.