When writing to promote a travel destination, we need to bring it to life in the potential tourist’s mind. When people plan their holidays, they have a vast choice of places to explore, each beautifully presented with words crafted to appeal to foreign visitors in their language.
So Italy cannot afford to do otherwise.
How can you describe a place in a way that makes the hairs stand up on someone’s neck, that captures their imagination, that inspires them to visit? There are many approaches, tools and techniques, and undoubtedly Italian destinations, DMOs and tour operators know just what to do when appealing to fellow Italians.
But what about tourists from overseas?
If your copy is only in Italian, then most of them will not understand it. And you won’t have made them feel very welcome, either; to that, add all the recent scare stories doing the rounds of pickpockets in Rome and you have an image of a less-than-welcoming country. An image that couldn’t be further from the truth.
And if your copy is in DIY English, then you may be able to impart some factual information about how travellers can reach you and what your prices are, but will you have whispered Italian magic into their English ears?
Probably not.
That’s what a professional translator can do for you.
A translator who understands how to use the rhythm and music of the English language to evoke the authentically Italian fabulousness of the Bel Paese.
By weaving in some adjectives to put the visitor at the centre of the experience – breathtaking, captivating, enticing, revitalising, lasting. (They’re called “active participial adjectives”, but you can just think of them as gold dust.)
By sprinkling in a judicious dash of alliteration, assonance and rhyme:
- An exhilaratingly empty beach
- Architecture abuzz with arabesques
- A pamper hamper.
And by injecting a few stylish, colourful details:
- As I sipped the grappa, a lizard darted across my moccasin.
- The late-afternoon sun gleamed on the freshly rinsed landscape. [after a rain shower]
- Fireworks bloom over olive-clad hills.
This is the writing acumen that makes all the difference, that helps your travel business stand out, and that inspires foreign tourists to come to you, not to the competition.
It’s worth it.