Dialectal brand names in Greek accommodation and catering facilities

The brand naming of touristic (accommodation, catering and other) facilities, both theoretically and applicably, constitutes the exact point where onomastics intersects with marketing and tourism. According to the marketing requirements, naming of touristic companies ought to follow solid criteria and techniques in order to generate successful and profitable results; in addition, most of these names fall into specific and finite semantic categories, each one focusing on different selection criteria as well as developing different locality elements. The present article studies whether and to what extent the use of dialectal or local language forms is apparent in naming Greek accommodation or catering facilities – which are understood not only as commercial units but mainly as parts of the area and the landscape they belong. Specifically, it examines all the names of accommodation (A) and catering (C) facilities that are listed in the Yellow Pages of Greece, https://www.xo.gr, (and adding examples from other web pages too) from three Greek prefectures with different touristic profiles. Determining factors of these different profiles are: a) if the prefecture in question shows high, middle or low tourism rates, b) if it includes seaside, mountain or combined destinations, c) if its visitors are mainly Greeks or foreigners. The paper aims to look into whether these or other factors affect the selection or rejection of names incorporated in specific language, a local culture symbolic or cultural capital, and how they affect their compliance with marketing requirements.