An Analysis of Translation Strategies in Tourism Discourse: A Case Study of Egyptian Governmental Tourism Websites

This study investigates the translation strategies used in rendering Egyptian Tourism Expressions (ETEs) from Arabic into English on selected official governmental tourism websites. Drawing on Vinay and Darbelnet’s model of translation procedures and Koller’s equivalence framework, a descriptive corpus-based content analysis with frequency reporting was conducted in a corpus of 160 ETEs. Findings reveal a strong dominance of literal translation (78.13%), followed by modulation (13.13%) and transcreation (8.75%), with no instances of cultural substitution identified under the study’s operational definition. The results indicate that institutional tourism discourse tends to prioritize cultural preservation, terminological stability, and informational clarity over creative adaptation. While tourism translation scholarship often highlights transcreation as suitable for promotional texts, the present findings indicate that its use in institutional contexts is comparatively limited. The study reconceptualizes transcreation as part of a continuum of strategies rather than a prevailing norm, highlighting how institutional genre conventions may shape translation choices.