The language of tourist information panels: analysis of the description of architectural heritage in Spanish and English

The tourist information panel is a textual genre linked to cultural or heritage tourism. The panels are usually found in public space next to well-known monuments. However, despite their visibility, there are no specific studies on the discourse of tourist panels. This article will analyse the characteristics found in those sequences that describe the architectural heritage that the tourist panel aims to promote. For the comparison between the Spanish text and its English translation, a contrastive approach will be used. Furthermore, the model of architectural description, which not only takes into account the use of architectural terminology, but also the discursive structure and the use of other elements present in the description, such as verbs and adjectives, will be used as a basis in order to measure the degree of descriptiveness of the tourist information panels.