Investigating the Role of Translators in Tourism in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine the role of translators in tourism in Saudi Arabia. Also, the research seeks to identify the challenges that face translators in tourism in Saudi Arabia. For these purposes, the researcher adopted the descriptive-analytic approach and relied heavily on a questionnaire to compile data. The subjects of this research comprised Saudi translators working in the tourism sector. The participants were (53) translators working at the Saudi Tourism Authority (STA) in other tourist companies. These participants are selected randomly with the condition that they have no less than two years of experience in the tourism sector. The findings showed that translators play a major role in tourism in Saudi Arabia since they play as cultural mediators and transfer the local culture and heritage knowledge to the visitors as well as enhancing the Kingdom’s image in front of foreign visitors. However, it is shown that translators in tourism face challenges that are mainly represented by a lack of cross-cultural knowledge and a lack of knowledge of tourist places and tourist audiences. The research recommended the need of translators in tourism to have cross-cultural knowledge of the source and target languages and to be well aware of the culture and heritage of each country. Also, the existence of bilingual tourist publications is essential for translators to get sufficient information about all branches of tourism.