The characteristics and impact of translated tourist brochures

• Main Author: Low, Meow Siang
• Other Authors: Helena Gao Hong
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::Language
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/72428
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Tourist brochures are the very first source of information visitors receive when they arrive at the desired destination. For visitors who are non-native speakers of the visiting country’s language, translation of the tourist texts is useful and important to them. Singapore also uses tourist brochures to promote tourism. Although English is the official working language in Singapore, some tourist brochures have translated versions in Chinese and other languages. According to statistics, China is Singapore’s second biggest tourist market, with 1,722,380 visitors in 2015. It is therefore interesting to find out the characteristics of the Chinese translated tourist brochures and the impact these brochures have on the tourism industry in Singapore. In this study, a total of thirty brochures available at various visitor centres in Singapore were collected, eight with translated versions in Chinese were selected for the analysis and eight without translated versions were used for the translation into Chinese. Some techniques like vocative writing style, paraphrasing, the use of “nin 您”[you], addition, and omission were used in the translation in order to ensure that the brochures serve their purpose as a tourist brochure. After making comparisons of the translated versions with the source texts, a total of 110 sentences were used for analysis. The study assessed the Chinese translations and some salient features were identified. These include the use of vocative writing style to attract visitors, the use of Chinese idioms and proverbs to present the translation in a more precise and expressive way, and the use of “nin 您”[you] as a Chinese way of showing respect to the readers. On the whole, the study noted that the translated tourist brochures in Singapore are as informative as the source texts and do have an impact in attracting visitors. In short, tourist brochures play an important part in tourism promotion. This study is significant for future study in tourism translation especially in the area of tourism promotional materials.