"llamar la atención"

Question

I've often heard Spanish speakers use the phrase ""llamar la atención." I've always translated it as "to call attention." So, "The beautiful flowers called my attention" (or maybe, "I noticed the beautiful flowers") would be "Las hermosas flores called my attention." This is how I've always trnslated this phrase in my mind. I always made the assumption that the translation is literal.

Today I came across this sentence in an article about"turismo místico :"Se ve cada vez más que a muchas personas el turismo clásico de ir a una playa a descansar o pasarse visitando museos no les llama la atención o no les proporciona lo que busca."

Here is my attempted translation using what must be an incorrect translation of "llamar la atencion": It looks more and more like the classic type of tourism of going to the beach to rest or spending time visiting museums doesn't call the attention of many people or provide them with what they are looking for.

To make sense in this context one would have to understand "les llama la atención " as something like "doesn't interest them." (No les interesa o no les atrae)

OR, maybe it means something like "get or grab their attention" which is closer to the literal translation.

So is "les llama la atención"" translated literally as calls their attention (or gets their attention) or can it be translated more like "is appealing to them" or "interests them"?

In my first paragraph I meant to say , las hermosas flores me llaman la atención - malbecblend, Sep 28, 2015

I like when it is used as 'to draw attention' I suppose you say it like that if I am not wrong. I've learned it from here - Pablo064, Sep 29, 2015

Answer 1

You could translate that very loosely as " doing all the usual tourist things does not interest them or give them what they are looking for."

gracias Daniela - malbecblend, Sep 29, 2015

Answer 2

OK, my question is:

...call their attention or does not call their attention

Do those two mean they get interested/don't get interested or ...is appealing to them/is not appealing to them

Just in English.

Because if they do, then you can literally translate those also.

Just like in Spanish.

That was my thought. :) - bosquederoble, Sep 29, 2015

For the English, I would have used "nor" instead of "or." Maybe in Spanish "ni" would be better than "o"? - Winkfish, Sep 29, 2015

Winkfish, I meant "or" - chileno, Sep 29, 2015

Answer 3

Chileno:

To answer your question, the sentence I quoted had within it "...no les llama la atención. .." ("...does not interest them..." per Daniela, or "...does not draw their attention..." per Pablo064)

For purposes of the discussion that followed, we shortened the phrase to "les llama la atención" (interests them/draws their attention).

I would use does not draw their attention because any other suggestion can also be translated literally. - chileno, Sep 29, 2015