Speaking the Ship: Documenting the In-Group Lexicon of Indonesian Cruise Ship Crew toward Sustainable Tourism Communication

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-809-2_10How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Green Tourism; In-Group Lexicon; Indonesian Cruise Ship Crew; Professional Identity; Tourism Linguistics

Abstract

The transformation of global tourism toward sustainability concerns not only environmental management but also the internal work culture and communication practices of its workforce. Yet linguistic studies in tourism remain focused on guest-facing service, leaving the internal language of tourism workers largely undocumented. This study addresses that gap by identifying, classifying, and describing the in-group lexicon used by Indonesian cruise ship crew in their daily professional communication. Using a descriptive qualitative approach, data were collected through a questionnaire distributed to 113 Indonesian crew members and supported by documentation. The study recorded 301 in-group terms, which were classified by language origin and by occupational function. Findings show that the lexicon is strongly multilingual: it is dominated by Italian borrowings (175 terms), followed by English (36) and Spanish (22), alongside a distinctive set of ship-specific slang (19 terms) understood only among crew. Functionally, the terms cluster around operational efficiency (deck, F&B, medical, and safety routines) and social solidarity (informal terms marking belonging and shared identity). These results demonstrate that the in-group lexicon is not merely a communication tool but a marker of professional identity and group cohesion. Viewed through a green tourism lens, efficient and shared internal communication reduces miscommunication and strengthens a sustainable work culture, positioning workforce language as an under-recognized contributor to the sustainability of Indonesia’s tourism human resources.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Ni Putu Somawati
AU  - Elvira Septevany
AU  - Harisal Harisal
AU  - I Putu Ari Utama Irawan
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/24
TI  - Speaking the Ship: Documenting the In-Group Lexicon of Indonesian Cruise Ship Crew toward Sustainable Tourism Communication
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Sustainable Green Tourism Applied Science - Social Applied Science 2026 (ICoSTAS-SAS 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 90
EP  - 101
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-809-2_10
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-809-2_10
ID  - Somawati2026
ER  -