Framing regional identity through conceptual metaphor: A cognitive linguistic analysis of Arabic tourism discourse in Ha'il, Saudi Arabia

This article examines how Arabic institutional tourism discourse constructs the regional identity of Ha'il, Saudi Arabia, through scenario-based conceptual metaphors situated within the Vision 2030 tourism policy horizon. Drawing on Conceptual Metaphor Theory, image-schema analysis, and an Arabic-adapted MIPVU procedure, the study analyzes 68 official Arabic promotional texts published between 2021 and 2023. The analysis identifies 128 metaphor scenario tokens grouped into four recurrent scenarios: GATEWAY, HEART/PULSE, CRADLE/LIVING MUSEUM, and MEETING/STAGE/CANVAS. Inter-coder reliability was high for metaphor identification, image-schema assignment, and scenario classification. Quantitative comparison across genres was not statistically significant, but descriptive patterns suggest that scenario use is shaped by genre affordances and communicative purpose. The findings show how embodied schemas are culturally mediated through Arabic expressions of access, vitality, origin, hospitality, and participation. The study contributes a transparent Arabic metaphor-identification workflow and a scenario-based account of how official destination branding translates policy-level ideas of connectivity, heritage stewardship, and diversification into cognitively and affectively resonant place narratives. Limitations include modest corpus size, reliance on official discourse, absence of audience reception data, and the interpretive nature of multimodal analysis.