Cultural Representations Of Alula City On Visitsaudi Website: Cda Of Translated Tourism Discourse
Auteurs : Hazaea Abduljalil .
Résumé
In translated tourism discourse, does the target promotional e-text represent a tourist destination as ideologically as the source text? The issue is not only a matter of content translation, but also one of the target audience and sociocultural practices. Subsequently, this study investigates the representations of Alula city in promotional tourism Arabic and English discourse on the VisitSaudi website. This study is guided by the theoretical orientation of translation as representations. To this end, 23 Arabic tourist texts were collected from the VisitSaudi website and their English versions, detailing attractions in Alula city. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) provides a toolkit for qualitative data analysis. The findings reveal that translation functions as a discursive and ideological practice rather than a neutral linguistic transfer. While the Arabic texts predominantly construct Alula as a culturally embedded, heritage-rich, and historically continuous space, the English translations recontextualize these representations to foreground experiential tourism and global recognition. Such shifts reflect strategic adaptations to the expectations of international audiences and align with broader practices in global tourism marketing. The study highlights how translation mediates between local cultural authenticity and global marketability, contributing to differentiated destination imaginaries. The findings carry important implications for translators, tourism professionals, and policymakers.
Mots clés
Alula; critical discourse analysis; representations; tourist attractions; translation
