ABSTRACT

Heritage tourism is a vital part of the global economy. To attract more international tourists, many heritage sites provide multilingual interpretation. Previous research suggests that cultural adaptations in translations are essential to international visitors having a positive experience. This article challenges this view based on two theoretical premises: visitors are active participants in engaging with heritage interpretation, and their experience, mediated through verbal interpretation, interacts with other semiotics in the heritage site. This project used the Chinese and English audio guides to Edinburgh Castle as a case study. The methods adopted in this study include textual analysis, post-visit interviews, and the use of a custom smartphone application to track the participants’ locations and use of the guide. The findings suggest that users of audio guides in different languages used different learning strategies to process unknown and familiar information, and foreign visitors, in particular, drew from different semiotic resources to construct their visiting experience. This research suggests that the key to engaging with international visitors is a well-prepared source text, which interacts with a range of multisensory semiotic resources, and facilitates visitor engagement with the physical setting.

摘要

遗产旅游是全球经济的重要组成部分。为了吸引更多的国际游客，许多遗产地提供多语种翻译。先前的研究表明，翻译中的文化适应对于获得积极体验的国际游客至关重要。本文基于两个理论前提对这一观点提出挑战：游客是参与遗产解释的积极参与者，他们的体验通过口头解释与遗产地中的其他符号学相互作用。本项目以爱丁堡城堡的中英文语音导览为案例研究。本研究采用的方法包括文本分析、访问后访谈以及使用定制的智能手机应用程序来跟踪参与者的位置和指南的使用情况。研究结果表明，不同语言的语音导览用户使用不同的学习策略来处理未知和熟悉的信息，特别是外国游客从不同的符号资源中汲取信息来构建他们的访问体验。这项研究表明，与国际游客互动的关键是精心准备的源文本，它与一系列多感官符号资源互动，并促进游客与物理环境的互动。