Translation and Tourism: Strategies for Effective Cross-Cultural Promotion

233 Pages·2019·4.114 MB·English

by  M. Zain Sulaiman, Rita Wilson

M. Zain Sulaiman · Rita Wilson
Translation
and
Tourism
Strategies for Effective Cross-Cultural
Promotion
Translation and Tourism
M. Zain Sulaiman Rita Wilson
(cid:129)
Translation and Tourism
Strategies for Effective Cross-Cultural
Promotion
123
M.Zain Sulaiman Rita Wilson
Universiti KebangsaanMalaysia MonashUniversity
Bangi, Malaysia Melbourne, Australia
ISBN978-981-13-6342-9 ISBN978-981-13-6343-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6343-6
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Preface
Tourism has become an important economic sector in many parts of the world.
With the forces of accelerating globalisation and heightened mobility in the
twenty-first century, as well as the rise of the ‘experience economy’, the tourism
industryislargerthaneverbefore.Internationaltouristarrivalshaveincreasedfrom
merely278milliongloballyin1980to1.3billionin2017andareexpectedtoreach
1.4billionby2020.Likewise,internationaltourismreceiptsearnedworldwidehave
surged from USD104 billion in 1980 to USD1.3 trillion in 2017 (UNWTO, 2017,
pp.2,14;2018,p.2).Theever-increasingnumberoftouristsworldwidehasturned
the tourism industry into one of the fastest-growing economic sectors in the world
and a key driver of socio-economic progress through the creation of jobs and
enterprise, export revenues, and infrastructure development.
The continued expansion and diversification of the tourism industry has wit-
nessed the emergence of many new destinations in addition to the traditional
favourites of Europe and North America. The industry has also witnessed the
proliferation of a huge range of tourism products with different labels for different
settings,environmentsandexperiences,rangingfromthetraditionalsightseeingand
shopping tours to the more adventurous categories such as mountaineering and
white water rafting. With so many destinations and products competing for atten-
tion, tourism marketers and advertisers are becoming more aggressive in their
campaigns. Atthe same time, contemporary consumers, overwhelmedby thehuge
volumeoftourismadvertisements,aregettingmoreadvertisingliterateandproving
harder to reach through the advertising process.
Thechallengesfacedbytourismmarketersandadvertisersareevengreaterwith
the increased contact between different linguistic markets through advances in
communication technology and greater mobility. Tourism, which has been an
obvious research area for anthropologists, sociologists and psychologists for dec-
ades, has now become an important site for the study of intercultural communi-
cationandtranslation.However,thechallengesofdeployingandcirculatingdiverse
linguisticmaterialstopromotetheindustryacrosslinguisticbordersremain,todate,
under-researched.
v
vi Preface
This book aims to address these challenges by investigating the root causes
behind the failure of translated tourism promotional materials (TPMs) to reach the
target audience and subsequently by proposing a sustainable solution capable of
achievingmaximumimpactintheindustryandsociety.Thesolutionintheformof
a cultural-conceptual translation (CCT) model identifies effective translation
strategies and provides a strategic framework for the mapping of possible best
practices in TPM translation.
As its title suggests, the book deals primarily with two key notions: translation
and tourism promotion. We view translation as a means of intercultural commu-
nication, negotiation and persuasion and define it in its broad sense, accommo-
dating concepts such as adaptation, localisation, transcreation and rewriting. The
second notion, tourism promotion, frames this book within the context of com-
mercialadvertising,settingitapartfromacloselyrelatedyetdifferenttopic,thatis,
travel writing. There is a body of literature within Translation Studies which deals
withtranslationandtravel(e.g.Agorni,2002;Bassnett,2004,2016;Clifford,1997;
Cronin, 2000; Di Biase, 2006; Martin & Pickford, 2013; Polezzi, 2001, 2006a,
2006b; Rizzo, 2003; Smecca, 2003). The focus of this body of literature is on the
connection between travel and translation, both of which are viewed as metaphors
of mobility and flux linked to the social and economic effects of globalisation.
However,thisstudyisnotconcernedwiththebroadertopicscoveredbythisbranch
ofTranslationStudiesbutratherwiththenarrowertopicoftourismandtranslation
within the framework of commercial product advertising. In our case, the com-
mercial product is essentially tourism experiences consumed by tourists at the
chosen destination.
Itisnoteworthythatmoststudiesfocusingonthetranslationoftouristliteratureare
basedontheinterlingualtranslationbetweenEnglishandotherEuropeanlanguages,
especially Italian and Spanish (e.g. Agorni, 2012, 2016; Cappelli, 2008; Federici,
2007;Hickey,2004;Katan,2012,2016;Manca,2016;Muñoz,2012;Pinazo,2007;
Sanz,2003;TogniniBonelli&Manca,2004;Valdeón,2009).ThefocusonEnglishis
easilyexplainedbytheroleofEnglishasaleadinglanguageofglobalcommunica-
tion, while the prominence of Italian and Spanish can be attributed to the fact that
academia in Italy and Spain is actively engaged in research on the language and
translationoftourismpromotionduetothekeyroleofthetourismindustryinthese
countries.SpainandItalyhavelongbeenamongtheworld’stoptourismdestinations
andcontinuetobeso,occupyingthesecondandfifthplaces,respectively,intermsof
tourist arrivals in 2017 (UNWTO, 2018, p. 8). Lately, there has also been an
increasingfocusinnon-European-exclusivelanguagepairs,particularlytheEnglish–
Chinesecombination(e.g.Hogg,Liao,&O’Gorman,2014;Sanning,2010;Wang,
2012; Xiong & Liu, 2011; Xu, 2010) which could be linked to China’s rising out-
boundandinboundtouristmarkets.Chinahasbeenleadingglobaloutboundtravel
since 2012 and has become one of the top 5 tourism destinations in the world
(UNWTO,2017,2018).Bycentringitsdiscussiononthereal-worldanalysisofyet
another Asian language—i.e. Malay—the book will contribute towards creating a
morebalancedperspectiveofthetranslationofTPMsintheglobaltourismindustry.
Preface vii
The book is aimed at readers interested in both translation theory and practice,
particularly the translation of advertising and tourism promotional materials.
Academics and students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, in the field of
Translation Studies, Cross-Cultural Communication, Tourism Studies, Language
for Specific Purposes, Marketing and Advertising as well as Cultural Studies may
findthisbookbeneficial.Thebookmayalsobeofinteresttothoseintheindustry,
particularlytranslationpractitioners,copywriters,tourismmarketersandadvertisers
as well as translation commissioners from tourism organisations, translation
agencies, advertising agencies and others.
This book combines both theoretical and practical aspects. Part I sets the scene
byprovidingcontextualinsightsandaddressingrelevanttheoreticalconsiderations.
Part II covers the practical aspect by demonstrating in detail the textual–cultural
analysescarriedoutinthecourseofdevelopingtheCCTmodel.Italsorunsaroad
test of the model on actual end-users of TPMs as well as tourism marketers and
advertisersfromtheindustry.Thebookconcludeswithguidelinesthatareintended
to advance best practices in TPM translation.
Bangi, Malaysia M. Zain Sulaiman
Melbourne, Australia Rita Wilson
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Acknowledgements
ThisbookisbasedonaresearchcollaborationsupportedbyUniversitiKebangsaan
Malaysia and Monash University, Australia, and funded in part by Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia grant GGPM-2016-023.
We would like to extend special thanks to Tourism Australia for granting us
permissiontousevisualimagestakenfromwww.australia.com.Wewouldalsolike
to thank all those who participated in this research, particularly the participants
of the focus groups and the commissioners of the pilot translation project. We are
also grateful to the publishers of the following journals for permission to adapt
material: Cultus: The Journal of Intercultural Mediation and Communication;
GEMA Online®Journal of Language Studies; Procedia—Social and Behavioral
Sciences (Elsevier); and Translation & Interpreting: The International Journal of
Translation & Interpreting Research.
ix
Contents
Part I Translating Tourism Promotion: Theoretical
Considerations
1 Understanding Tourist Motivation and Industry Persuasion. . . . . . 3
Tourist Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Industry Persuasion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The Role of Culture in Tourism Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2 Tourism Promotional Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Defining Tourism Promotional Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
The Language of Tourism Promotion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Features of the Language of Tourism Promotion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Techniques of the Language of Tourism Promotion . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3 Tourism Promotional Materials Across Languages
and Cultures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4 Tackling the Tourism Translation Challenge: A
Cultural-Conceptual Approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
The Cultural-Conceptual Translation Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Translation Purpose and Destination Image. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
A Cultural-Conceptual Analysis of the Target Audience . . . . . . . . . 57
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Part II Application and Evaluation of CCT: The Case of
English-Malay
5 Cultural Profiling for Translation Purposes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Framing the Source, Parallel and Target Texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
xi