Merrill Brink News Reviews and Opinion on Aug 28, 2015: Translating Travel-Related Content to Attract Business
New York, NY (PRWEB) August 28, 2015 -- Travel, whether for business or leisure – represents a strong and growing sector of the business economy. The travel and tourism industry contributed $7.58 trillion to the global economy in 2014, an increase of almost $1 trillion from 2009 when the total contribution was $6.08 trillion. However, for many travel-related businesses, growth increasingly means dealing with the diverse cultural and language preferences of today’s travelers. As many companies are finding, the only way to succeed is to provide compelling print and digital content in multiple languages.
Marketing Content Issues for the Travel Industry
Hospitality service providers face their own hurdles in creating content in different languages for their guests. Restaurants, hotels and attractions must first decide which languages to target, and then translate their documents in a tone and style appropriate to the visitor’s language and dialect. Simply translating a document into French, Spanish, English or Portuguese isn’t enough. While these languages are native to many countries, they have naturally evolved according to each locale’s vastly different cultural and linguistic influences.
In addition to translating company-written marketing and legal content, travel and leisure companies must also be prepared to offer customer-generated content and comments in multiple languages. A multitude of review sites have sprung up as people have grown accustomed to researching restaurants, hotels, attractions and business venues before making a commitment. In fact, a survey conducted by PhoCusWright and TripAdvisor found that more than half of all global respondents did not want to book a hotel until they had an opportunity to read what others had to say about it.2 When researching accommodations, 80 percent of those surveyed noted they read between 6 and 12 reviews before making their choice.
It’s important for any business in the travel industry to partner with a language services provider whose staff understands both the translation process and the persona or profile of the person who will be reading the materials. It has become virtually impossible for a travel and leisure business to stay afloat without the ability to provide customers with the information they need in their preferred language—and that’s just the minimum. Businesses must also find effective ways to encourage and display customer-written content.
Translating customer recommendations, reviews and comments into other languages requires a solid commitment. Companies who choose to translate general reviews and comments must translate all of them. Choosing to translate only a few reviews may lead to buyer skepticism.
Working with a language services provider can help in more ways than one. Companies that provide content to their visitors in their native language help them feel more comfortable in choosing the company’s services. It can also lead to building a library of multilingual customer content and comments that will help the company build its brand and earn trust among millions of world travellers.
References
1 “Direct and Total Contribution of Travel and Tourism to the Global Economy from 2006 to 2014 (in Trillion U.S. Dollars),” http://www.statista.com/statistics/233223/travel-and-tourism--total-economic-contribution-worldwide
2 “TripAdvisor Now Offers 150 Million Reviews and Opinions with 50 Million Pieces of Content Posted in the Past Year,” Press Release posted February 25, 2014, http://www.tripadvisor.com/PressCenter-i6611-c1-Press_Releases.html
Full Article: http://www.merrillbrink.com/translating-travel-related-content-08242015.htm
About Merrill Brink® International
Merrill Brink International (http://www.merrillbrink.com) is a leading provider of complete translation and language solutions for global companies and law firms, with special expertise in serving the legal, financial, life sciences, software, heavy machinery and corporate markets. A proven leader with more than 30 years of experience, Merrill Brink offers a wide range of language solutions including translation, localization, desktop publishing and globalization services.
Merrill Brink is recognized in the industry for its commitment to quality and its pioneering approach of leveraging technology to reduce costs, eliminate redundant processes and accelerate translation life cycles. Merrill Brink is certified to ISO 9001:2008; ISO/IEC 27001:2005 and ISO 13485:2003, and compliant to EN 15038:2006 and ISO 14971:2007.Together, these standards provide assurance that the most stringent process and quality standards for translation are followed. Merrill Brink International is a wholly owned subsidiary of Merrill Corporation.
Vanessa Lontoc, Merrill Brink, http://www.merrillbrink.com, +1 (917) 720-5598, [email protected]
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