The pandemic has halted travellers in their tracks. According to a survey commissioned by the agency Wavemaker, which specialises in marketing and consumer habits, before the onset of coronavirus, 26% of Spaniards took at least one recreational flight every year and 18% took more than two. Despite the efforts of airlines to transmit a sense of safety with passenger movement protocols, masks, PCR tests and vaccine passports, people are afraid.
However, given that the vaccination campaign is advancing at a good pace, and combined with a hefty dose of optimism, it’s possible that tourism may resume much earlier than we thought, and we’re sure that it will once again become the economic driving force of our country.
This is why it’s vital to have everything ready so that when tourists do arrive, language doesn’t pose a problem. For this reason, translating tourism texts is becoming a major priority for most companies that seek to reach the highest number of customers.
Translating material such as brochures, catalogues, information posters, menus, museum guides, which are used to attract tourists as well as help them, can be a real headache since it requires not just a good knowledge of the language in which to translate, but also a thorough understanding of the socio-cultural elements of the country in question.
From a linguistic point of view, tourism translation poses numerous obstacles: proper nouns, place names or culinary references being just a few of them.
To these obstacles, we can add complications stemming from space limitations when the text is to be published in a specific medium or when there are adjustments to its format. In this case, the role of the translator and the DTP artist is crucial to reproducing the original format as faithfully as possible.
At CLINTER we always recommend that our clients approach a specialised and professional translation service that can deal with any issues that may emerge in this area.
