Shaping Saudi Arabia’s National Image Under Vision 2030: An Appraisal Analysis of the Saudi Minister of Tourism's Davos Discourse
Abstract
This study aims to explore the Saudi Minister of Tourism's discourse on the image of Saudi Arabia under Vision 2030. It examines the panel discussion given at the Saudi House pavilion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, 2025. This investigation is based on Appraisal Theory (Martin & White, 2005) and the Attitude system is investigated, which consists of Affect, Judgement, and Appreciation, and employs a qualitative single-case design that is used to explore the construction of a national image in evaluative language for an international audience. The analysis revealed that the Minister uses all three subsystems to show the Saudi Arabia as an able and ambitious country, and presented Vision 2030 as the frame enabling the sector's growth. The study provides an insight into the construction of a national image by evaluative language in the political-economic context.
Downloads
References
Alangari, E. (2022). Cultural mediation in tourism translation: Saudi Arabia as a case study. Arab World English Journal For Translation and Literary Studies, 6(3), 82-98. https://doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol6no3.6
Alfurayh, L. (2025). Speaking culture: Language, identity, and tourism in Saudi Arabia's vision 2030. English Linguistics Research, 14(1), 21. https://doi.org/10.5430/elr.v14n1p21
Almushayqih, H. A. (2022). Portraying national images in political discourse: An appraisal analysis. [Master's thesis, Qassim University].
Boulding, K. (1959). National images and international systems. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 3(2), 120-131. https://doi.org/10.1177/002200275900300204
Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.). SAGE.
Du, S., Cheong, C. Y., & Dong, X. (2026). From words to world: Attitudinal appraisal analysis of China's Anhui provincial tourism branding on TikTok. Leksema: Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra, 11(1), 15-32. https://doi.org/10.22515/ljbs.v11i1.12795
Fan, Y. (2010). Branding the nation: Towards a better understanding. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, 6(2), 97-103. https://doi.org/10.1057/pb.2010.16
Jalilifar, A., & Moradi, Y. (2019). Tourism discourse revisited: An analysis of evaluative strategies in tourist brochures from a systemic functional linguistics perspective. Journal of English Studies, 17, 211-232. https://doi.org/10.18172/jes.3595
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. (2016). Vision 2030. https://www.vision2030.gov.sa/
Liu, F. (2018). Lexical metaphor as affiliative bond in newspaper editorials: A systemic functional linguistics perspective. Functional Linguistics, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40554-018-0054-z
Liu, Q. Y., Ang, L. H., Waheed, M., & Kasim, Z. B. (2022). Appraisal resources and national image: A case study on Chinese foreign ministry spokespersons’ responses about COVID-19. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 12(10), 2152-2160. https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1210.23
Martin, J. R., & White, P. R. (2005). The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English . Palgrave Macmillan.
Mocini, R. (2013). The promotional functionality of evaluative language in tourism discourse. Lingue e Linguaggi, 9, 157-172. https://doi.org/10.1285/i22390359v9p157
Santosa, R., Sugiarti, R., Wiratno, T., Djatmika, & Wibowo, A. H. (2026). Evaluative language in heritage exploration: A cultural approach to tourism discourse analysis. Script Journal: Journal of Linguistics and English Teaching, 11(1), 99-117. https://doi.org/10.24903/sj.v11i1.2345
Tahat, K. M., Mansoori, A. S., & Tahat, D. N. (2025). Saudi Arabia’s image in the international press: News framing by CNN and the BBC. Dirasat: Human and Social Sciences, 52(3), 7198. https://doi.org/10.35516/hum.v52i3.7198
Wu, G. (2018). Official websites as a tourism marketing medium: A contrastive analysis from the perspective of appraisal theory. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 10, 164-171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2018.09.004
Yin, R. K. (2014). Case study research: Design and methods (5th ed.). SAGE.
Copyright (c) 2026 Fawzi Ali Alshammari
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
