ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes discussion threads in the TripAdvisor forum devoted to trips to Israel. It explores the boundaries between virtual communication and the real world, as reflected, interpreted, and reinterpreted in online discussions. A multiethnic and multilingual state, Israel is richly endowed with historic and mythological sites. Mixing languages has become a hallmark of linguistic landscape in numerous countries, and it is also typical of online communities. Travel portals are multilayer websites which enable users to book hotels, flights, and tours, check details about various destinations and hospitality providers, and give a platform to travelers to post their own reports, exchange information and impressions, write reviews about sites and services, and post photographs and videos. In contemporary urban cultures, public transport has an important role in people’s life, providing mobility and contributing to the perception of personal freedom. The use of English when speakers of different languages communicate “carries with it an almost inevitable load of inter-discourse or intercultural communication”.
