Tourism Texts Research Articles

Enhancing Machine-Translated Tourism Texts: Post-Editing Practices of Indonesian Students

This study investigates practices among students majoring in the English Education Study program at Universitas Muhammadiyah Sumatera Utara Indonesia in post-editing machine-translated tourism texts. Utilizing a descriptive qualitative approach, we analyzed the post-editing practices of these students. The texts postedited were authentic Indonesian tourism texts sourced from lonely planet website. The findings revealed machine translation errors in three main areas: lexico-semantic errors, grammatical errors, and syntactic errors. Lexico-semantic errors often involved incorrect word choices and mistranslations of nuanced terms. Grammatical errors were prevalent in the misuse of tense, agreement, and article usage. Syntactic errors included improper sentence structure and word order, leading to awkward or unclear translations. As a result of these errors, it was observed that students did some corrections to polish the machine translated text, from the most dominant type of correction to the least dominant, including correcting lexical choices, correcting word form, correcting word order, omissions, additions and deleting. It is recommended that future studies involve more diverse participants with different text types so as to generate a more comprehensive finding.

Harmony in diversity: exploring cross-linguistic, cross-cultural and multimodal dimensions of temporality within tourism discourse

Abstract This study explores temporal aspects in tourism discourse across modes, languages and cultures, focusing on translated texts in German, Italian, French, English, and Spanish. Tourism communication, a persuasive force promoting destinations, constructs authentic experiences for potential tourists. Beyond promotion, it reflects a societal practice shaping tourist identities and destination cultures. The translation of tourism texts involves considerations of cultural values and multimodal representations, seeking to transfer the unique selling proposition effectively. Existing research has analyzed trigger words, interlingual strategies, and cultural representations, but a gap exists in understanding the translation of temporal aspects. This paper investigates the multimodal representation, promotion, and transfer of temporality in tourism texts, contributing to contrastive and multimodal research in tourism communication. Key questions addressed include how elements from different modes contribute to the unique selling proposition, how the advertising message is conveyed in a multimodal coherent way, and which temporal aspects are translated and adapted in the target language. The present paper sheds light on the intricate interplay of language and image in conveying the temporal dimension of tourist experiences across diverse linguistic and cultural contexts.

Analyzing Translation Errors of Trainee Translators: A Case Study on Tourism Promotional Material

The present study aims to scrutinize the trainee translators’ errors in their translations of tourism promotional material, a brochure, from Turkish into English. Thus, this study is designed as a descriptive qualitative research and corroborated with quantitative analysis, presenting a thorough analysis of the translated texts based on the American Translation Association (ATA) translation error taxonomy. The framework of this study employs Corder’s taxonomy of phases for error analysis, namely, selection of a text, identification of errors, classification of errors, and explanation of possible reasons for those errors. The data discussed in this paper derive from the translated texts of fifteen trainee translators i.e., third- and fourth-year T&I students at a private university enrolled in the Cultural Aspects of Translation and Interpretation course. The results revealed a statistical difference between the main error categories. According to the findings, trainee translators made most errors in the form of the language, i.e. target language mechanics, followed by errors in meaning and errors in writing quality. In acting as a “cultural mediator” in tourism text translations, trainees have also been found to be not so effective as they are supposed to be. With the results unfolded, it is hoped to benefit to both translation professors and trainees themselves.

Dali Ancient City Tourism Industry Culture and Tourism Publicity Text Translation Characteristics

With the continuous development of tourism in Dali, more and more tourists are attracted to visit Dali, including a large number of overseas tourists. Therefore, in order to help overseas tourists better understand the local folk customs and promote the better development of tourism in Dali, this paper, from the perspective of tourism translation texts in Dali and the German functional theory, compares and analyzes the English Translation Materials of tourism texts in Dali. Based on the principles of English-Chinese translation, this paper summarizes the characteristics of tourism text translation in Dali Ancient City from three aspects: vocabulary, grammar and tense. The theoretical basis of this thesis is that the German functional theory can play a useful role in translation practice, especially in non-literary translation and tourism translation. On the one hand, it provides evidence for functional translation theory. On the other hand, it provides some constructive suggestions for English translation of tourism culture materials in Dali. Thus draw the distance between tourists and the propaganda text, so that tourists can not only enjoy the beautiful scenery, but also feel the charm of Dali culture.

Using Pathos, Logos and Ethos in Tourist Guidebooks

This paper examines the use of ethos, pathos and logos in tourist guides published in Albania in English. This study follows a larger project that carried out a corpus analysis of tourist guides published from 2015 and 2019, provided by the Travel Magazine in Tirana, Albania. The data were analysed qualitatively by using Aristotelian rhetorical theory. The results show that some persuasive techniques were used by authors of tourist guides. It appears that the appeal to pathos was highly preferred, as it represents a means to directly connect with authors‘ emotions. The second most appealing was ethos, where the authors used their own ethics and credibility to persuade future travellers to opt for Albania for their future holidays. Finally, the present study shows that tourist texts should be linked to emotions in order to achieve their goals in promoting tourism and persuading foreign travellers.

STYLE IN TRANSLATION AS A PARAMETER IN TQA: A PRAGMATIC PERSPECTIVE

Style in translation can be a parameter in translation quality assessment (TQA). The style in translation refers to the translation having the same perspective as the source text. In assessing style in translation, translation does not only focus on the meaning but also the relevance of utterance. The article discusses the translation style based on pragmatic studies. The study used the utterances in the tourism text Solo Calendar of Event 2018 as data since the text has a communication function. The function of the text should be represented in the translation to achieve the same perspective of translation. The style in translation also considers the translator's effort to achieve the equivalence in meaning and relevance of utterance. The style in translation of a pragmatic perspective requires a relevance of communication. The study indicates that the there are two relevance degree, namely translation with strong and weak relevance. Translation with strong relevance indicates that translation can preserve the style of source text. The maintaining of style of source text contribute to the high quality of translation.

VISUALIZING TOURISM TRANSLATION LITERATURE (2002-2023): A BIBLIOMETRIC REVIEW

Background and Purpose: With the rapid development of tourism, language plays a significant role in influencing a tourist’s decisions when planning their trip, especially if they do not speak the language of the destination. Given the critical nature of information in the tourism industry, translating tourism materials for international tourists becomes essential. However, there has been limited bibliometric review on the issue. Thus, this bibliometric review aims to comprehend the existing literature and provide a visualized profile for various themes by analyzing hotspots, emerging trends, and the evolution of tourism translation studies.
 
 Methodology: A bibliometric review was conducted using the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). The review utilized CiteSpace software to generate a scientific knowledge map and visually analyzed 2764 research articles on tourism translation published in CNKI over the past 21 years (from 2002 to 2023). The analysis encompassed time, author, and institution mapping, keyword clustering, and the identification of emerging words.
 
 Findings: The findings indicated that the study of tourism translation had sparked researchers’ enthusiasm, resulting in a general increase in the number of articles. Furthermore, various theoretical frameworks, including Skopos theory, Translation Aesthetics theory, and Adaptation theory, have been extensively analyzed in tourism texts. Although significant progress has been made in the exploration of translation strategies, there is still considerable room for advancement in terms of research methodology and perspective.
 
 Contributions: This bibliometric review contributes to the advancement of knowledge in tourism translation, helps shape future research directions, and offers practical guidance for industry professionals, researchers, and policymakers involved in the tourism sector.
 
 Keywords: Chinese-English translation, tourism translation, visual analysis, tourism materials, CiteSpace.
 
 Cited as: Shang, X. Y., Mat. N. H. C., & Teh, H. S. (2024). Visualizing tourism translation literature (2002-2023): A bibliometric review. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 9(1), 174-192. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol9iss1pp174-192

Study on the coordinated development of national traditional sports and tourism brands based on big data platforms from the perspective of “The Belt and Road”

The Belt and Road (B&R) plan is put out within the framework of global economics and strategic growth. This study examines the written material of popular tourist sites along B&R and the tourism assets from the viewpoint of B&R, based on the wireless network and AI technology, and using a big data platform and the Internet of Things (IoT) User Generated Content (UGC) network structure. To manage tourist pictures from customers’ views, online travel notes are first utilized as examples. Next, tourism texts’ keywords are extracted using Python big data and AI technology to understand consumers’ perceptions of scenic spot preferences, tourism facilities and services, and social and cultural customs. The findings demonstrate that, when compared to the conventional tourism brand development strategy, the integrated development strategy based on the AI big data platform can not only increase the effectiveness of managing tourists’ perceptions of scenic locations but can also encourage the common development of national sports event components and intelligent tourism image management. Several sports tourist boutique picturesque locations have also been built along B&R following years of development of intelligent tourism and sports projects, which will strengthen the effect of multicultural exchanges.

Improving machine translation and post-editing for Chinese tourism texts using transformer-based models

As the digital age and globalization continue to evolve, the demand for accurate machine translation of tourism texts has increased substantially. This paper investigates how to improve the quality of machine translation (MT) and machine translation post-editing (MTPE) of Chinese tourism texts for non-native speakers. A review of the machine translation literature reveals a significant progression in translation methods from rule-based to corpus-based, statistical, and finally to the current neural machine translation (NMT) models. Despite its advanced capabilities, NMT requires large amounts of parallel data for training, which often presents challenges. This study proposes the use of Transformer-based models for MT and MTPE to improve translation quality. A dataset was curated from online sources, mainly Chinese tourism websites. The methodology involved pre-processing the data, performing machine translation using the Transformer model, and post-editing the results. The experiment demonstrated an increase in the BLEU score, suggesting an improvement in translation quality. However, challenges such as the handling of synonyms and geographical nouns were encountered, indicating the need for further research and model optimization.

The Application of Domestication and Foreignization Strategies in Translation of Tourism Texts

With the implementation of China’s reform and opening-up policy and economic development, the tourism industry has also grown rapidly, attracting an increasing number of foreign tourists to choose China as their travel destination. To better promote and introduce scenic spots, the English translation of tourist attractions is crucial. The choice of translation strategy has become a focal point and core in the translation work of tourist texts. Newmark’s text function theory provides theoretical guidance for the application of domestication and foreignization translation strategies in translating tourist texts. Therefore, the translation of tourist texts demands not only accurate conveyance of the original information but also linguistic simplicity. Tourist texts belong to the typical “vocative” functional category, primarily aiming to convey information and induce action. Simultaneously, they contain a wealth of highly distinctive cultural information. Therefore, the translation of tourist texts should accurately convey the original information while maintaining linguistic simplicity and accessibility. This requires translators, during the translation process, to integrate the different functions and communicative purposes of the text, considering the audience’s receptiveness and determining the application of domestication and foreignization translation methods based on practical considerations. This paper, based on the two translation strategies of domestication and foreignization, combines the Wudalianchi Global Geopark Text for Outdoor Interpretation Panels and Outdoor Discovery Land for Popularization of Science as an example to explore how to apply domestication and foreignization strategies in the translation of tourist texts, aiming for better communication effectiveness.

Research on the Translation of Tourism Text from the Perspective of System-Functional Linguistics

Guilin landscape tops those elsewhere. However, there are few studies and analyses on the translated versions of Guilin tourism. In order to fill the gap in it and have a better analysis, the article selects representative English versions of Guilin tourism translation from major tourist attractions, analyzes the problems in the original translation under the guidance of system-functional linguistics, and provides targeted suggestions for the problems from the perspectives of three major metafunctions.

ОТРАЖЕНИЕ КУЛЬТУРНЫХ ОСОБЕННОСТЕЙ В ТЕКСТАХ ТУРИСТИЧЕСКОЙ НАПРАВЛЕННОСТИ (НА ПРИМЕРЕ ПУТЕВОДИТЕЛЕЙ ПО ГОРОДАМ КАНАДЫ)

The paper studies the peculiarities of the Canadian culture and its reflection in tourist texts. The research indicates that the reference to the cultural theories and models contributes to better understanding of national consciousness and character of Canadian culture representatives and helps to reveal the Canadians’ communicative style in tourist texts. The results of the study show that a travel guide is both a text and element of culture aimed at performing intercultural communication and reflecting ethnocultural peculiarities of the country with the help of language means.

Transmate在旅游文本英译研究中的应用研究

Transmate在旅游文本英译研究中的应用研究

A half-century reflection on pleasure vacation motives

A half-century of research purporting to explain tourists' motivations for engaging in pleasure vacations was critiqued. Two major changes in context that have influenced tourism motivation studies, and which define the parameters of this review are identified. This is followed by a description of the Theory of Disequilibrium, which has emerged as the unifying theory for explaining tourists' motivation, and the physiological and psychological roots of motive constructs. Research findings relating to the efficacy of the most frequently cited frameworks in tourism texts for explaining this process were critiqued. The review confirmed that most studies tended to embrace either the “push” and “pull” factors which are the inputs to Expectancy-Value Theory, or a more instinctive Thematic-Combination Heuristic approach, or some combination of the two. These were critiqued. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research.

Analysis of Tourism Copywriting for Chinese International Teachers from a Multimodal Perspective

International Chinese language volunteers often need to introduce Chinese tourism culture when teaching abroad. Due to the inability of learners to personally experience China in foreign environments, it can have a significant impact on teaching effectiveness. The multimodal form of combining images and text can more intuitively help overseas Chinese language learners understand and understand China, enrich their Chinese language learning after class, and satisfy their curiosity and longing for China. This article uses Halliday’s multimodal theory to organize and analyze 43 tourism texts edited by international Chinese language volunteers in teaching from four aspects: cultural level, contextual level, meaning level, and formal level. It also summarizes the precautions that Chinese language international teachers should pay attention to when writing tourism texts.

Research on Translation Strategies of Tourism Texts from the Perspective of Eco-Translatology ---- A Case Study of Shaanxi Province and Shandong Province

As tourism translation plays an important role in the strategy of improving cultural soft power and cultural outreach, many scholars have conducted research on tourism translation using different theories. Under the framework of the Eco-Translation Theory proposed by Hu Gengshen, this paper conducts a comparative study on the English-Chinese translation of selected tourism texts from the linguistic dimension, cultural dimension and communicative dimension respectively. Through the case studies, the author finds that there are corresponding adaptations and selections in the process of translation of tourism texts, which result in different tourism translation strategies. Based on this, the paper concludes countermeasures and methods to improve the quality of tourism translation, hoping to promote the foreign promotion of tourism resources in relevant provinces and cities.

Caffè macchiato grande, Bambini and Casoni: languaging in the text genre of travel guides

Abstract This article deals with languaging, a manifestation of language contact often found in tourism communication. It is understood as the use of local language in tourism texts written in the language of the tourists. After a review of previous research on languaging and its functions within tourism communication and on the contact linguistic status of languaging units and their mediation in the text, an analysis of a corpus consisting of four general German guidebooks on the northern Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia is carried out with regard to how the examples of languaging found therein are distributed between the different guides and within each guidebook. Previous studies have already pointed out that the distribution in the guides is not uniform. The analysis is based on the work on text genres by Fandrych and Thurmair, according to which travel guides are large texts with four subtext genres, namely orientation texts, sightseeing texts, advice texts and in-depth texts, each of which fulfils certain dominant functions, has certain linguistic structures and deals with certain topics. The research questions posed are: what is the quantitative distribution of languaging evidence in the analysed guidebooks, and do certain semantic-functional types of languaging occur preferentially or even exclusively in certain subtext genres?

STYLISTIC AND GRAMMATICAL POTENTIAL OF ENGLISH TOURISM DISCOURSE

Purpose. The paper aims at discovering stylistic and grammatical peculiarities in tourism discourse based on VisitBritain.com text corpus; analyzing its application scope and mission; specifying “tourism discourse” as a notion.
 Methodology. Used in the paper are general scientific methods (synthesis, generalization), analysis of the text corpus, method of linguistic analysis.
 Results. The issue of tourism discourse as a separate unit, not a subtype of advertising discourse, remains highly disputable nowadays. The present paper analyses the theoretical basis of notions of “discourse” and “tourism discourse”; determines the levels and communication means in tourism; substantiates the hypothesis on multi-component and multi-modal structure of tourism discourse as a linguistic phenomenon. In the practical part of the research, the author draws special attention to the specifics of the English tourism discourse in terms of typology, lexicology and morphology. The paper concludes by saying that tourism discourse is different from advertising one as well as requires further investigation into the issue.
 Practical implications. The results presented in the article can be used both in theory and applications, i.e., further inquiry into the pragmatic constituent of tourism discourse and its interdisciplinarity; compilation of corpora of tourist texts in the English language; adaptation of the English tourism discourse for present-day realities and addressees’ demands.

Translation and EIL in accessible tourism

Abstract This paper aims at exploring the potentials and limits of translation and English as International Language as tools of inclusion in accessible tourism. Accessible tourism can be defined as a form of tourism that enables people with access requirements, including mobility, vision, hearing and cognitive dimensions of access, to function independently and with equity and dignity through the delivery of universally designed tourism products, services and environments. This research will try to identify the main linguistic, translational and multimodal features characterising a series of accessible tourism texts in English and Italian, in order to show how translation and English as International Language may increase, or sometimes hinder, the actual level of accessibility and promotional aims of these texts, raise awareness on disability issues and, mostly, contribute effectively to the development of a more inclusive and egalitarian society.

Examining Cultural Words Translation in Tourism Texts: A Systematic Review

The steady growth of tourism is increasing the demand for tourism translation. Cultural words (CWs) translation is challenging since they are absent from target cultures. This systematic review examines studies on CWs translation in tourism texts to comprehend the literature and explore future research tendencies. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses, researchers did a comprehensive literature review. Twenty-one articles met the inclusion criteria after the protocol-required data selection and screening. The findings reveal that scholars are increasingly concerned with CWs translation in tourism texts. Moreover, all the included articles used varied theories. Most of them focused on applying various taxonomies of translation strategies to compensate for the losses of cultural connotations in cultural words' rendition. Besides, other researchers focused on CWs translation from different perspectives, such as translation quality assessment, Eco-translatology, meaning equivalence, cultural manipulation, and relevance theory.