Quality parameters for tourism translation ES>FR: proposal-guideline and case study

Abstract

Spain is a major tourist destination. Thanks to its historical and cultural heritage, combined with its traditions, prestigious festivities, rich cuisine, climate and affordable standard of living, among many other attractions, it is a recurring destination for millions of international tourists, including those from France. For this reason, tourism translation represents one of the specialities with the highest volume of work. However, this speciality is often criticised for the low quality of its texts. But what do we mean by quality? In this study, we will try to find out what factors are considered necessary to assess whether the translation into French of a tourism text has reached the expected quality. We will deal with quality from a normative point of view, i.e. from the theoretical approaches of various researchers, as well as from translation agencies in France and Spain. All this with the aim of drawing up a table (by way of a proposal-guide) with the parameters that could be followed to identify a quality tourism translation and which could be applied in the translation classroom. Finally, we will present a practical case study in which we will analyse the translation into French of information on Holy Week provided by the tourist office of a locality.