An image and text should work together to attract and seduce foreigners to choose a particular tourist package. Seduction requires language, and tourists will greatly appreciate being able to read leaflets and guides that help them to find out about a country’s tourist sites and culture.
Leaving Google translator to one side, we must understand that the linguistic quality of the texts must be very good in order to get good results and prevent culture shock or cultural crises. A poor translation can cause the message to fail and can lead to a terrible image of the tourist office.
The country’s image depends on a good translation
Translations or adaptations of these texts must be performed by translators and editors who are able to master the linguistic richness of their language, but who also understand culture and language. Tourists will be able to detect whether the texts that they are reading are well written in their native language. A good translation or adaptation should be unnoticed and should sound natural.
1. Seduction of the language
Language has a great power to seduce and build loyalty if we want to reach the tourist establishments and shops where our customers are going. If we give them good service and speak to them in our language, it’s more likely that they will come back again and again. Strengthening communication and language increases synergy.
2. Professionalism and cultural specificity
Some translations require a careful procedure that must be carried out by a professional translator, and it is very important to stress that there are certain cultural specificities that require us to adapt to the different varieties that a language may have. The Spanish language used in Spain is not the same as in Latin America.
3. A translation mistake can be costly
You need only have a glance at the many images circulating on the internet to see the poor use of translation in the tourism sector. Restaurant menus and advertising leaflets are sometimes full of mistakes. Translating the dishes on a menu is not an easy task because we need to describe exactly what the tourist is going to find on their plate.
A quality translation means that you would not even notice that a translator had been involved. The secret of a good translation is summarized in the term “localization”, which is the process of adapting a product or service to a specific region.
The difference between translation and localization is quite simple: translation consists of correctly transferring the information from one language to another, while localization goes much further, adapting the content and aiming it at a particular audience, according to their origin, language and customs.
Finally, it is worth highlighting that the translated text must have the same effect in the target language as in the original for there to be any cultural adaptation. Tourists will notice information that has been adapted to their culture.
