A Brief Survey On Tourism, Culture And Translation

Nowadays, with the development of economic globalization, cross-cultural communication is more and more frequent. Among various ways of cross-cultural communication, traveling is one of the most popular ones. It is a pleasant enjoyment for tourists to experience foreign cultures in the course of traveling. In this case, tourism has its unique cultural implications. The contents of tourist materials are the reflection of tourism culture. There are a great number of foreign tourists traveling in China every year, attracted by the mysterious Chinese culture. In order to understand the Chinese tourism culture, reading tourist materials should be a window for foreign tourists. The cultural information contained in such materials as tourist advertisements, tourist brochures, introductions of sceneries and so on, seems complicated and unique, thus the English translation of which becomes a key point in the communication of tourist cultures.Various problems are found in the English translation of tourist materials at present in China. The English level of translators is, of course, the primary cause resulting in low quality of translation; but the misunderstanding of culture is also an essential element which influences the veracity of tourism translation. The latter is the main topic of this thesis.Now most tourist translators still have weak consciousness in culture. Without unified guiding principles or rules in tourism translation, different translators understand the cultural information from different aspects and then use different methods in translation; as a result, tourism translation appears to be in disorder. This is a block for foreign tourists to understand the Chinese culture. This thesis tries to analyze and discuss the translation of tourism culture contained in tourist materials from the perspective of culture.Culture is always related to translation. Translation is the bridge of cultural exchanges and culture is the basis of translation. Each nation has its unique culture, which is different from others'. Different cultural concepts bring barriers and difficulties to translation. Therefore, how to deal correctly with cultural differences in translation is an important problem in translation theory and practice. The same barriers and problems also exist in tourism translation.In the development of translation theories, people become aware of the importance of cultural elements in translation gradually. The traditional translation study pays more attention to language analysis and comparison of texts while the present translation study gives an emphasis on the understanding of cultures in translation. Taking cultures as the basis of translation, in this sense, translation study is pushed forward to a new phase. Based on the theories of cultural translation, this thesis presents the principles in the English translation of tourist materials: by focusing on the Chinese culture and giving attention to the receptivity of foreign tourists. The translation methods to be employed can be flexible: literal translation, free translation, transliteration, adaptation, etc. In short, we should take cultural implications as the guiding line with flexibility in dealing with differences.With the deepening of the Open Policy and the prosperity of tourism industry in China, tourism translation begins to display its increasing importance. To better pass on to foreign touriststhe cultural meaning implied in the tourist materials will help the spread of the Chinese culture among people around the world, and meanwhile promote the growth of China's tourist economy. For this reason, the study of cultural translation in the tourist materials is of great practical significance. I believe more and more importance will be attached to the research of culture in translation as part and parcel of cross-cultural communication. It will become a new area of studies with its unique characteristics.