Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a view of the greater context of issues in English for tourism (EfT) research and teaching, specifically considering the existing research tradition, role of needs analysis, and status of English(es) in the world. In the absence of a discourse across institutions, regions, and nations, teachers of EfT lack access to a wealth of information and experience that could inform their own teaching approaches. The industry EfT supports, the language and culture knowledge needed by professionals in the field, and the resulting learning implications of EfT are distinctive within the greater language for specific purposes discipline. When professionals in EfT rely solely on ESP findings that do not specifically relate to EfT teaching contexts—that arise in “widely disparate circumstances”—they risk misinterpreting relevance and undervaluing uniqueness.