The article examines the functional and pragmatic potential of nonverbal units in shaping the speech portrait of participants in tourist communication. A speech portrait is interpreted as a multilayered phenomenon that is not limited to verbal units but is also manifested through facial expressions, gestures, gaze, body posture, vocal characteristics, and communicative distance. The role of nonverbal markers observed in the communicative behavior of guides, service staff, hosts, and tourists in expressing sincerity, professional composure, attentiveness, hospitality, and communicative openness is identified. Based on a comparative analysis of English and Uzbek tourist communication materials, the study substantiates that the same communicative role may be constructed through different combinations of nonverbal means in different cultural environments. The identificational, characterizing, and pragmatic functions of nonverbal units within the structure of the speech portrait are distinguished.

tourist communication, nonverbal unit, speech portrait, communicative behavior, facial expression, gesture, paralinguistics, communicative role, pragmatic marker, hospitality.

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