Tourism is one of the sectors for which tourist translations are requested quite frequently. A sector that is always in motion, especially in certain periods of the year. Whether it is hotels, travel agencies or restaurants, all tourism-related business activities aim to attract as many people as possible.
If it is true that on the one hand the Internet has facilitated or shortened the distance between seller and consumer, on the other the importance of tourist translations for some traditional marketing means should not be underestimated.
The linguistic gap must be overcome together with the cultural one: without having to destroy the cultural and linguistic peculiarities of the country or the destination language, tourist translation actually aims to leverage these.
It is essential that institutions, companies or individuals in the tourism sector equip themselves to offer an unforgettable and impeccable experience, through a translation of content that is localized and consistent with the target language. A risky, or even worse, completely absent translation of a foreign website, menus and illustrative catalogs could be fatal for a tourist business.
Tourist translations: typical cases from maps and tourist guides…
Brochures, tourist maps and menus have the task of guiding the customer through the descriptive and illustrative contents inserted within them. Therefore the tourist translation must be clear and easy to learn, both in the original language and in a foreign language.
The texts of a tourist guide must be fluent and interesting, capable of attracting the reader’s attention, but at the same time concise in providing useful information or technical notions. The difficulty in tourist translation lies precisely in the smoothness and correctness that the translated text must maintain.
Tourist texts hide a great communicative power: by getting the translation wrong, the wrong message is transmitted, and the final result will be totally different from what was expected. Incorrect tourist communication can negatively affect the foreign image of the country or the activity in question.
Naturally, the translations of tourist texts vary depending on the content and intended use, in the choice of tone of voice or keywords to use. A brochure will tend to take on a more informal tone, while a tourist guide will have a more specialist tone.
… to translations of menus for tourists
In the food and wine sector, tourist translations are requested for different types of content: from food or wine labels to restaurant menus. It goes without saying that the lexical and technical terminology changes depending on the content. For this reason, it is necessary to rely on translation agencies and native speaking professionals who are specialists in the relevant sector.
The menu is the business card for a business in the food & beverage catering sector. Menus, regardless of the language in use, cannot rely on listing the list of ingredients and providing a precise and complete list of ingredients for each course.
Having a menu translated into the target language – or at least into English – means not only accompanying the potential customer in interpreting the contents and information about certain dishes and ingredients, but also allowing him to feel pampered and at ease in interacting with a place and a service that is unfamiliar to him. The tourist translation of menus therefore serves to increase the loyalty of new customers and facilitate communication and food safety, avoiding any kind of misunderstanding.
How to do? Rely on translators in the tourism sector who can transpose into the target language(s) in a professional and impeccable way. The translation will have to focus more on the communication factor than on mere semantics: going to depth, trying to make the information captivating, complete and coherent for the foreign tourist.
LingoYou is always looking for new talents and professionals in the field of specialist translation. We are looking for a spirit of resourcefulness, uniqueness, seriousness, desire to grow professionally in new recruits. If you are also a specialized translator and native speaker, and you are motivated to become part of a varied and involved team, do not hesitate to contact us!
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