"Why Antigua and Barbuda?" Analysis

This extract is a persuasive article that by the use of personal opinions and selective information wants the reader to travel to Antigua and Barbuda. It uses formal language. “Why Antigua and Barbuda?” the title tell us that the text will be arguing for the country, “the beaches are beautiful” is the way the writer describes one of the many places, subjective? The article is located in the webpage “wheretostay.com”, so this is probably just one of many countries/cities discribed in the page. The author is not mention in the extract, it could be the webpage's administrator, a user loyal to the site, or someone from the government of Antigua and Barbuda promoting the country. This overview is very bias and it only shows the good and expensive places of the country, by doing this the audience reached is wealthy people and families, and it makes sense, this people will spend more money, that is what the country needs.

The hole text is in english, without any link to a spanish version, reducing the audience only to certain type of cultures/countries such as, England, Canada, USA, New Zealand, Australia, english speakers. From the very beginning untill the end the author mentions the luxury and glamorous places to stay and visit, "Luxury hotels", "The largest and most developed tourist destination" the text always refers to the best of everything, "better-known hotels", "best-known resort", with this kind of references is impossible to a medium class family make any kind of planification, the ones that are meant to read this are rich and wealthy families. The activities that the author offer are very particular, things such museums and historical places, "The museum of Antigua & Barbuda", "historical site called Nelson's Dockyard"; very attractive activities for a senior or a bookish. There are also natural landscapes and just one place to dance, the favourite activity for teenagers, "rugged mountain peaks ideal for island overviews", "the site offers panoramic views", "the atmosphere is pure fun and local bands play infectious dance music"; the author focuses much more in fathers, by offering relaxing and comfortable activities, probably because they are the ones that choose where the family goes on vacation. There are some elements to consider at the time of knowing the tarjet audience, "lack of presence of a U.S. -based chain.", "British Empire is still evident in both the formal demeanor of the local population"; the lack of U.S. based chain hardly be used as an argument to convince someone to visit Antigua and Barbuda, but it is more likely that some group of people won't visit the country because of this, americans nationalists; the mention of the British Empire and the discipline of the inhabitants is something that an englishman would love, these implicit messages are some of the techniques used by the author.

The description of Barbuda begins in the fifth paragraph. This one differs markedly with Antigua's description, "is wild, woolly and barely inhabited", "one tiny cement block structure"; this types of adjetives shape our perception, words like tiny, woolly, or cement block structure, aren't glamorous nor luxury at all, a repulsive feeling is what they make the reader feel. Is difficult to find a reason for this ugly description of Barbuda, the writer could be trying to offer all types of atmosphere and activities to the audience, or, as I said in the begining, the author could be a user trying to show the good and bad things of the country. The first nice place to visit, according to the text, are the isolated beaches, "beautiful stretches of uninhabited beach", maybe the view is beautiful, but its not part of human nature being alone, so just a minory would like to visit Barbuda.

As we saw in the analysis, the effect that the author want to cause on the reader is the need to travel to Antigua and Barbuda, this is seen in the variety of activities and atmospheres offered, but the text isn't objective at all, the author says many personal opinions and he mentions only the best places to stay. With formal language the writer mentions relaxing and historical places to visit, thus defining the public.