CULTURAL MEDIATION AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF HERITAGE NARRATIVES IN INTERNATIONAL TOURISM

Аннотация

In the context of global tourism, cultural heritage is increasingly mediated through multilingual communication aimed at international audiences. While translation is often perceived as a neutral transfer of meaning, it plays a constitutive role in shaping how cultures are represented and consumed. This study investigates translation as a form of cultural mediation in the construction of heritage narratives, drawing on the theoretical framework of staged authenticity. Focusing on Uzbekistan as an emerging tourism destination, the paper employs qualitative discourse analysis of tourism texts, including official websites, brochures, and museum descriptions. The findings demonstrate that translation practices selectively reframe cultural elements to enhance accessibility and appeal, often simplifying complex socio-cultural meanings and privileging globally recognizable narratives. This process results in a curated form of authenticity that aligns with tourist expectations while potentially marginalizing local perspectives. The study contributes to the intersection of translation studies and tourism research by highlighting the ideological and communicative dimensions of translation, and it calls for more reflexive and culturally sensitive approaches in heritage representation..