Hi. I'm currently teaching English for tourism classes at a college in China. For my students, one of the biggest issues is actually be able to use the language they already know. Thus, we concentrate a lot on activities aimed at building fluency in addition to teaching language (ie roleplays). I'm also starting to work with them on sentence-level intonation and expressing emotions. Pragmatics (politeness, etc.) also seem relevant to them.
I'm taking more of a task-based approach than a content-based one. I'm trying to have my students practice situations and language that they will encounter in their jobs as tour guides, hotel / restaurant managers, etc.
I just started teaching here a few weeks ago, so I'm sure as the semester goes on I'll have more ideas about what English for tourism specifically entails. If you're interested, I've started doing a podcast in which I talk about my teaching (available here:
ESL etc.).
As far as books go, our textbook is completely irrelevant, and I don't have any academic background in English for tourism. I've been teaching for over 7 years, though, so I'm hoping to figure it out pretty quickly.
I hope this helps! Feel free to ask if you have any more specific questions.
Take care,
Dave
ESL etc. - Bringing global issues and activism into language teaching.