Translating heritage
A study of visitors’ experiences mediated through multilingual audio guides in Edinburgh Castle
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12886051 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Min-Hsiu Liao (0000-0002-5348-6281, Heriot-Watt University, corresponding author), Phil Bartie (0000-0002-1139-0716, Heriot-Watt University) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 283-295 |
| Publication date | 2021-09-16 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Heritage Tourism (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1743-873X • E-ISSN: 1747-6631 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/1743873x.2021.1976786 |
| OpenAlex | W3197367520 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
| References cited | 12 |
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
Archaeology · Construct (python library · Cultural heritage · Cultural heritage management · Heritage tourism · Interpretation (philosophy · Linguistics · Semiotics · Sociology · Tourism · Visitor pattern · Computer Science · Digital Storytelling and Education · History · Subtitles and Audiovisual Media · Translation Studies and Practices
Diagnosing unperceived values in tourist dissatisfaction across the European route of industrial heritage
Seeking identity through difference
From pixels to places
Tourists’ perception of the human settlement in traditional village from the perspective of the integration of geography and semiology
Translation, heritage, and traveling memory
Advances in visitor attraction research
Bibliometric Analysis on Chinese Tour Guiding Research 2000–2025
A thematic investigation of tourist experiential gaps in Moroccan cultural heritage museums using a sentiment-guided Bertopic text mining approach
Making culture “sound” better
Translating environmental memory in a natural history museum
Text and Image
Designing interpretive audio tours to enhance meaningful learning transfer at a historic site
Visitor Attitudes to Stonehenge
Heritage interpretation and foreign language provision at Irish visitor attractions
Crossing the Cultural Divide
Reading between the lines
Mindful visitors
The appreciation of cultural and linguistic adjustments in multilingual museum audio tours by international tourists
Interpretive evaluation
Intertextuality, translation, and the semiotics of museum presentation
| Unique citing works | 10 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 10 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 10 |