Reading between the lines: Multidimensional translation in tourism consumption

•Move translation from literal dimension to a cultural dimension.•Introduce translation theory and genre analysis to tourism management.•Demonstrate the importance of cultural awareness when translating texts.•Shows linguistic accuracy is superseded by a requirement for cultural sensitivity.

This paper argues that for translation to enhance the tourist experience literal accuracy is not enough and translations should be culturally sensitive to their target readers. Using the example of museum websites as a form of purposive tourism information designed to both inform and attract potential visitors, this paper analyzes websites of museums in the UK and China. We argue that no matter how accurate a translation may be, if the norms of the target tourist community have been ignored a translation may fail to achieve its purpose and may even have a detrimental effect on the tourism experience. By bringing together translation and tourism theory, we demonstrate when the cultural element of tourism is considered alongside the translation of texts, the need for linguistic accuracy is superseded by a requirement for cultural sensitivity.