The Tourism industry is the backbone for some countries. Many countries earn billions of dollars in foreign exchange every year through their tourism sector. Countries take great pains to promote their tourism industry, which obviously requires advertising and marketing campaigns on a large scale. The Tourism industry is a very competitive sector and it is not an easy task to attract tourists. It requires developing customer contact and teaching foreign tourists more about the culture, architecture, customs and important sites of the country. The aid of translation services is a must to promote the tourism industry of any country. There are many international translation service companies working specifically for the tourism sector of various countries. An Italian translator from a Miami translation services firm told us about the business of income they generate from tourism each year.
We examined some of the samples of English to French Translation of travel brochures done by a Chicago translation services company called The Marketing Analysts Translation Services Company. The focus of translation work done for the tourism industry is to highlight the positive points of the target culture as well as to introduce it to the tourists, maintaining an aura of mystery about it while simultaneously removing any doubts or fears they may have about undertaking the journey. There are certified translators who are assigned translation tasks related to tourism industry. This type of translation requires a high level of competence on the part of the translator. The main objective of the translation done for the travel and tourism industry is to promote the culture, customs and social environment of the target country. This is only possible if the translator has a native level proficiency in the target language and full command over the source language.
The tourism industry needs professional translation services to translate their travel brochures, travel catalogs, travel guides advertising flyers. Moreover, complete website translation and localization also requested in some cases. This is the only way to introduce the most diverse travel destinations and sites in various languages to people belonging to different cultures. While translating for the tourism industry, a language translator needs to attract the potential holiday-maker, sitting in front of his television set comfortably, surfing through channels. The goal is to motivate the potential holiday traveler to pack up his/her bags and embark on a journey to a foreign world. Data indicates that France alone was frequented by 81.6 million international tourists in 2012.
Tourists have different desires and objectives for traveling. Some people indulge in tourism to enhance their knowledge and information about other cultures. Some want to write travelogues after getting back to their own countries. But the majority of tourists are in need of a “relaxing get-away” or have some kind of adventure on their minds. While translating for the tourism industry, translation service companies need to cater to all types of vacationers. The Marketing Analysts is a certified translation service company rendering translation services to a variety of clients for over two decades. A German translator working for the company shared some information with us regarding tourism translation. He told that he had translated countless travel guides and brochures from German to English in his career as a professional translator. According to him, Germany attracts thousands of foreign tourists every year which consequently brings business for the translation company.
Tourism industry and translation have a strong link with each other and without the aid of translation services, no tourism industry can thrive.
References:
1) http://www.academia.edu/280191/Going_tourist._Tourism_and_translation_of_local_cultures
2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Tourism_rankings
