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Excerpt:

Tourism professionals have an obligation to provide tourists with objective and honest information on their places of destination ... (Source:Global Code of Ethics for Tourism)

I understand it as *they should provide tourist with honest info about different places the tourist will go in a particular destination", am I right?

Or it is only a way of saying destinations? Is there any redundancy in their places of destination?

And what is this structure? their refers to tourists? Could a native kindly paraphrase this sentence?

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    Destinations are places, so in English this is redundant & sounds odd. "...objective and honest information about their destination(s)." You could say something like "points of departure," or "place of origin," but in this particular case "places of" is not necessary.
    – mc01
    Commented Apr 23, 2015 at 22:03

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This is an example of idiomatic writing that is common in some dialects. The example sentence posted is actually not grammatically correct. The writer uses the wrong preposition, and nobody caught it for correction.

Tourism professionals have an obligation to provide tourists with objective and honest information about [or regarding] their places of destination...

This would be a more correct way to write the same idea.

Now, the preposition "about" introduces the prepositional phrase "about their places of destination". The entire prepositional phrase provides the reader a better understanding of the "objective and honest information" in question. In this case, it tells us that the information has to do with the "places of destination" of the customers of the tourism professionals.

"Places of destination" is also an unusual (and redundant) expression. It means the same thing as simply saying "destinations". The following sentence means exactly the same thing as the example sentence:

Tourism professionals have an obligation to provide tourists with objective and honest information about their destinations...

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  • Actually, my problem lies in the phrase their places of destination
    – Juya
    Commented Apr 23, 2015 at 17:33
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    I see. I'll edit for you. One second!
    – R Mac
    Commented Apr 23, 2015 at 17:34
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    Gr8! May I ask whether you are a native English-speaker?
    – Juya
    Commented Apr 23, 2015 at 18:05
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    @MrTheWalrus I suspect it is a literal translation from French "lieux de destination".
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Commented Apr 23, 2015 at 18:10
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    @Juya Yes, I am a native English speaker. :)
    – R Mac
    Commented Apr 23, 2015 at 18:12
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Yes, "places of destination" is redundant. A destination in this context would presumably have to be a place -- the tourists aren't headed for pizzas of destination or algebras of destination, of course they're going to places.

"On" here means "about". See http://www.thefreedictionary.com/on, definition 11. (English prepositions can have MANY possible meanings.)

The sentence could be modified to, "Tourism professionals have an obligation to provide tourists with objective and honest information about their destinations."

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  • Yes, I do not know why lawmen tend to write like this! in another part of the source it reads "they should have access to places of transit and stay and to tourism and cultural sites without being subject to excessive formalities or discrimination". I think it is the same usage. Would you tell me a single word substituting "places of transit"?
    – Juya
    Commented Apr 23, 2015 at 21:59
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    I guess in context "places of transit" means train stations, airports, and the like. I think a fluent English speaker would write "access to public transportation".
    – Jay
    Commented Apr 23, 2015 at 22:03
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    That does seem like the same translation issue ... I'd suggest: "... they should have access to transportation, lodging, and to culture and tourism sites without..." ... Additionally, "places of transit" evokes the stations & terminals more than the buses/trains themselves, which would seem to be the more important part. If you have access to the mode of transport then by extension you already have access to the stations & terminals where they're found.
    – mc01
    Commented Apr 23, 2015 at 22:10
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    @mc01 Yes, that's better. I was trying to think of a word that includes bus stations, bus stops, train stations, airports, rental car locations, etc, but I don't know of a commonly used English word or phrase. Tossing it in with lodging, culture, etc and saying "sites" or a similar word is a good solution.
    – Jay
    Commented Apr 24, 2015 at 13:10

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