Translation in the Tourism Industry
Gillovic, Brielle. “Enabling the Language of Accessible Tourism.” Journal of Sustainable Tourism., vol. 26, no. 4, Channel View Books/Multilingual Matters Ltd.,, 2018, pp. 615–30.
In her paper, Gillovic investigates the idea that the term “accessible tourism” lacks scholarly criticism and debate, and thus she examines language. Accessible tourism is a subset of tourism where people have access requirements to tourism, such as mobility, vision, hearing and cognitive dimensions of access. This allows the individuals to function independently through the delivery of universally designed tourism products (books, manuals, packages, etc) and environments. This universal tourism includes tourism that has a lot of translated texts in order to create a multilingual, or universal, tourism industry. However, a large part of the piece is when Gillovic argues that this does not include people with disabilities or people that are impaired and thus she criticizes this universal tourism.
Gillovic’s scholarly source is different than the other sources I have looked at because instead of looking at just translation, it looks at people with disabilities as well. Because of this, the disability lense can be applied here. Her paper could serve as a counter argument with my paper because it is about how a universal tourism industry may actually be ineffective, while I am arguing the opposite.
That being said, I am not positive that I will be using this source because it provides information that may not be useful to my research paper. I am not planning on talking about people with disabilities; however, maybe this provides me with a platform to do so. It would also serve as a good and effective counterargument and it explores aspects of tourism and translation that I did not consider.
Grasu, Diana. “Translation In The Tourism Industry.” Lexington, 31 Jan. 2017, www.lexington.ro/en/blog/item/47-translation-in-the-tourism-industry.html.
Translation is vital to the success of the tourism industry due to the diversity of the people, languages and cultures that interact with one another, and demands for content in multiple languages. In her essay, Grasu argues this and the idea that countries need to implement translation in order to persuade tourists to visit and in order to help them understand the country’s culture. Websites, catalogues, brochures, menus, flyers or signage, in the various business areas in which the tourist industry moves need to be translated, as it is fundamental for the tourism industry and infrastructure like airports, hotels, etc. She discusses the benefits (communication, higher level of precision, etc) and limitations (abbreviations, term density) behind the standardization of tourism terminology as well.
Grasu’s essay is similar to Skibitska’s essay because they both focus on abbreviations and how the professional industry will have different terminology catered to them than the common tourist. Because of this, the education and class level lense applies.
I plan to use the information in this source because it discusses the importance of translation within the tourism industry; however, it also discusses the benefits and the limitations, which I need to consider while writing my essay. It provides background information on the tourism industry and how it functions with the aid of translation.
Iglesias, M. “The Role of Travel-Related Aspects in the Language Tourism Experience.” Enlightening Tourism : a Pathmaking Journal., vol. 7, no. 2, Universidad de Huelva, 2017, pp. 125–53.
In his article, Iglesias explores Language tourism as an educational travel niche and a subtype of cultural tourism. He explores the the language tourism product’s travel components, rather than the language tourism market system supply and demand. He provides his audience with logos and facts by providing a survey that was conducted in Barcelona between international students at a university between 2015 and 2017, in which the respondents were eager to learn Spanish and be immersed in the culture. The results of his study provide key travel related features that must be taken into consideration while creating language immersion travel experiences
I plan on using this scholarly source in my paper because it provides factual information and data regarding what the language tourism experience and industry entails of and what it needs in order to be successful. Similar to other essays that conducted surveys and had examples, like Sulaiman’s, this will strengthen my essay because it will exemplify my argument. It also narrows down on a certain age group, university students, which I thought was interesting and may provide me with more specific and accurate data. Also, all of the students were interested in immersing themselves into the Spanish culture which provides me with a cultural lense.
Laborda, Jesús García. “Using Webquests for Oral Communication in English as a Foreign Language for Tourism Studies.” Journal of Educational Technology & Society, vol. 12, no. 1, Jan. 2009, pp. 258–270. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, proxygw.wrlc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=37012142&site=ehost-live. Accessed 20 Nov. 2018.
There has been a long-standing debate surrounding foreign language learning about whether or not computers should be used to promote communication, whether it be social or professional and Jesús García investigates this in his essay. Webquests are a popular way of using the Internet to research a vast array of topics, and if appropriately used, these Webquests can examine what is required to develop both written and oral communication. Garcia’s essay examines Webquests as a learning approach, activity and and oral development task.
Although the essay does not determine the effect of Webquests within the tourism industry, Webquests are widely utilized while translating between languages, especially when traveling, which is why this information is vital to my research. It will allow me to make conclusions about whether or not Webquests affect the industry or not. If Webquests do promote communication, then this could positively impact the tourism industry as tourists could communicate with locals or natives more frequently, thus making a destination more accessible.
This scholarly source was not similar to many of my other sources and it provides a technological and modern lense, which is good for my essay because so far, I do not have much of that. Since technology is so highly utilized while abroad and while trying to communicate, I plan using this article to determine the effects of how technology affects communication within the tourism industry. A specific Webquest is something like Google Translate, or other mobile applications like that. By using background information here, I can look at mobile applications and see how those affect tourism as well.
Sulaiman, M. Z. “Translating Australian Urban Gastronomic Experiences for Malay Tourists.” Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, vol. 24, no. S Feb, Multiple Vendors, pp. 21–35.
Food plays an important role in the tourism industry, as tourists hold the meals they eat on vacation at high esteem and always long to eat at an appealing restaurant or have an appealing meal. Given this importance, tourism promotional materials promote destinations by highlighting gastronomic experiences and Professor Sulaiman delves into this topic in his essay. He investigates a multilingual Australian website that attempts to lure both Anglo and Malay tourists and he determines the extent to which the website is successful in persuading tourists to dine at specific restaurants in specific Australian cities. Sulaiman discovers that Anglo tourists are lured in by specific keywords (words such as ‘swanky,’ ‘gourmet,’ etc), cultural immersion and contrasting techniques; however, Malay tourists are lured in by emphasis on halal food and availability and cultural adaptations. In sum, Sulaiman concluded that the multilingual Australian website would be effective if the translation emphasized the idea that the gastronomic experience would include halal options for the Malay tourists, thus persuading them to travel to the Australian city. In contrast, the Anglo tourists would be persuaded to travel to the Australian city if the gastronomic experience emphasized certain keywords and cultural immersion experiences.
This scholarly source helps my paper because it provides examples of how specific translation techniques are utilized in order to lure in specific tourists and strengthen the tourism industry. It also demonstrates the background knowledge that tourism promoters need to consider when deciding how to promote their city or country and how to appeal to a specific market.
This source is similar to both Skibitska and Grasu’s essays because it implements techniques on how to make translation successful within the tourism industry.
I plan on using this source in order to provide specific examples of how certain translation techniques are used in promoting the tourism industry. I will delve into the idea that Malaysians want an emphasis on halal food because they have dietary restrictions and how tourism industries have to recognize this to be successful. This also provides me with information on how important the gastronomic industry is within the tourism industry. Since the Islam religion consumes halal food, the religion lense is applied here.
Skibitska, Olena. “The Language of Tourism: Translating Terms in Tourist Texts.” Translation Strategies, Oct. 2015, translationjournal.net/October-2015/the-language-of-tourism-translating-terms-in-tourist-texts.html.
Skibitska investigates how tourist texts and how translating said tourist texts impacts the international tourism industry as a whole. With the rise and development of the international tourism industry, also came the rise of communication within the field. The paper is divided into five parts that determine how tourism terminology translation can add to the future process of achieving generally accepted standards for using and creating translated tourism terminology. She breaks down her paper by showing how certain words are too complex to translate and how they will not appeal to the common tourist. For example, she states that instead of using the term for “diving,” “snorkeling,” one should just use the term “swimming” for both of them in order to make the translation more effective and appealing to the common tourists. The majority of her paper is filled with information like this and other important statistics that occur with translation in the tourism industry.
Based on the structure of her paper, it is not too similar to my other sources, which I like because it provides me with a variety. It also delves deeper into the subject of actually translating words and how professional translators translate specific words depending on who their target audience was. For some words, they will do the direct translation of the word if the audience is full of professionals; however, if it is full of common tourists, they will not. I thought this was interesting and liked how this essay was about the actual process of translating rather than the effects of translating.
I plan to utilize her examples within my own paper. For example she provides context and information regarding how 37.6% of the time, translation is mistranslating and is not as effective as it could be. I will be using data like this in my essay in order to strengthen my own essay and further my argument. Although this is not considered a scholarly source, it is still important to the success of my paper because it provides logos, or facts, in order to strengthen my argument. The lense of class (professional vs. common tourist) and education level apply here.