Tourism sign systems and meaning construction: A conceptual approach based on Ferdinand de Saussure’s structuralist linguistics

This study explores the objective structures and mechanisms that generate meaning in tourism through a semiotic approach. It conceptualizes tourism as a non-linguistic sign system and reconfigures the tourism framework accordingly. Drawing on Saussure’s structural linguistics, the research examines the structures that underpin meaning creation in the tourism sign system. First, Ferdinand de Saussure’s views on language and epistemology are reviewed, along key concepts such as langue and parole, signifier and signified, syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations, and synchrony and diachrony. The study differentiates between signifier and signified in tourism signs, emphasizing that the ‘langue of tourism’ is not an independent 'substance' with inherent “content” but rather a “form” and “social fact” collectively constructed in the minds of potential tourists’ mind. Meaning in tourism emerges through syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations, demonstrating how meaning is produced in the tourism sign system. Through this process, the objective structures and mechanisms of meaning creation in the tourism sign system are revealed. This study complements prior semiotic research by providing a framework for understanding the objective foundations that enable subjective tourist experiences. Finally, the implications and limitations of this study are discussed.