Creating Country’s Image: The Role of Four Latvian Regions Ieva Juozapaviciute Faculty of Humanities, Siauliu University
Summary Lithuania is slowly growing interest in neighboring countries. Information gap is filled with press, including travel journals. They help to create and develop the image of country. Image of country is the whole complex of stereotypes which are changing very fast. Purpose of this report is to discuss what kind of image is created in Lithuanian travel journals Kelionių magija and Kelionės ir pramogos about four regions of Latvia (Vidzeme, Kurzeme, Latgale and Zemgale). From the 34 articles about Latvia which were found in travel journals, there are 13 articles about regions of Latvia. In journals these regions are proclaimed in various ways: descriptions of castles, museums, ski trails, hotels and so on. Vidzeme and Kurzeme are more popular in travel journals – there are slightly more articles about these regions than about Latgale and Zemgale. To describe the regions of Latvia and to create Latvia’s image in general authors of these articles use a lot of various figures of stylistics. The image in all discussed articles is created by choosing familiar topics such as the Venice of Latvia, Latvia is Switzerland, Latvia is a garner. All articles are richly illustrated by photos. They also help to develop an attractive image of the country. The most visited tourist sites in four regions are informatively presented in all articles, but also readers and future travellers being attract by describing Latvia as yet undiscovered country.