Transcreation in Digital Tourism Information: An Inclusive Language Approach

Introduction

Language is one of the main persuasive instruments when developing informative resources and marketing tools aimed at potential clients. In the context of the modern digital society, one aspect to arouse considerable interest refers to the importance of facilitating access to information adopting a multilingual and translingual perspective. The need to favor communication and the dissemination of information from the sector, along with interaction with potential consumers, makes it essential for tourism companies and professionals to achieve an internet presence that is solid, professional and adapted to target markets. This aspect is even more important in the case of small and medium sized enterprises, for which the use of the internet and Web 2.0 tools offers numerous opportunities in exchange for reduced cost (Ferreira; Gutiérrez-Artacho & Bernardino, 2017).

Essentially, from the professional, enterprise and human perspective it is necessary that companies adapt their corporate websites to different languages and cultures if they seek to reach greater success and bigger audiences. It is necessary, however, to take into account that the information destined towards dissemination on the web is comprised of different semiotic sources –linguistic elements, images, color, design, animations, voices, music, etc. For these multi-mode texts, language is no longer the dominant semiotic source, rather, another resource that interacts with the rest, creating meaning (Munday, 2004). Therefore, the mere translation of a website into other languages is often insufficient for contributing to a satisfactory experience on the part of its users. Transcreation, which consists of the intra or interlinguistic reinterpretation of a text to adapt it to the target public (Gaballo, 2012), constitutes a growing trend in the sphere of translation. This is reflected in the fact that standards such as Spanish ISO 17100 (Aenor, 2016) have recognized transcreation as an added value service within the language services industry. In the case of interlinguistic reinterpretation (which implies at least two communication languages), transcreation leads to a type of translation wherein both the words and the meaning of the original texts can be susceptible to serious modification with the aim of producing the same effect in the target receivers as in the source audience –taking into account the possible existence not only of language differences, but also cultural differences between both publics.

Given its nature, the fields where transcreation has reached a greater development are precisely those related to marketing, communication and advertising (Díaz-Millón & Olvera-Lobo, 2021; Olvera-Lobo et al., 2019), due to the need to adapt advertising campaigns and marketing actions to other globalized markets. In this regard, the aim is for an advertising text to achieve the desired effect in all target markets but always conserving the creative intention of the original campaign, the message that it intended to transmit and specific aspects of the marketing language such as the so-called brand voice (Pedersen, 2014). Thus, transcreation seeks interlinguistic adaptation to different audiences and markets, to which it does not constitute a mere translation subtype, rather, it involves complex processes that require translation methods and skills up to a certain point or in some phases (Katan, 2016; Pedersen, 2016). The transcreation approach can therefore be described as a creative, subjective and emotive process via which some parts of the message are translated and others adapted to the target market. For all of the above, it is perfectly possible, even recommendable, to apply transcreation processes to certain digital products, such as corporate websites, given that they include diverse elements specific to the language of advertising (Morón & Calvo, 2018; Rike, 2013). A characteristic of these products is that they present numerous translation problems arising from cultural components, humor, poetry, neologisms, plays on words and other evocative resources. In these cases, translation professionals approach jobs from clients (companies or individuals) creatively, to which the process becomes transcreative.