As the UK looks to encourage trade and tourism with more countries outside the EU, it is important to understand their needs when visiting hotels and attractions. In a recent survey amongst Chinese tourists visiting the UK, 9% said that they viewed Chinese translation services and Chinese translated leaflets and brochures to be an important aspect of a hotel’s service to them. In addition, 7% responded by stating that a Chinese translation of the hotel’s website was important.

Chinese Tourist Translation Survey

The survey, conducted by IPSOS for Hotels.com discovered that these two translation services ranked a high fifth and sixth importance for the visitors. Also in the top needs of the travelling Chinese tourist was the provision of in-house Mandarin speaking staff.

However, the service gap between how the hotel’s themselves ranked these elements was noteworthy. These areas of translation services, were however, not ranked as highly by the hoteliers’ themselves. The analysis of responses showed that only 18% of hotel of the hotels surveys currently provide travel and tourism guides translated in to Chinese with only 21% planning to provide this service within the next 12 months. Further analysis highlighted that only 17% of hotels surveyed currently provide in-house Mandarin-speaking staff with only 17% intending to provide this translation service in the next year.

Improving Chinese Translation Services

As the number of Chinese tourists increases, they are naturally being viewed as a highly important market sector for the travel industry. The number of Chinese tourists continues to rise resulting in an incredible 25% increase of visitors to Europe over the last 12 months alone.

In order for hotels to make the most of this increase in visitor numbers, there is an opportunity for hotels to attract additional bookings by offering their visitors a translation service, having translated literature available and by reviewing their overall offering to the Chinese tourist market.

Opportunity for Translation Companies

In addition to this being an opportunity for improving hotel services, it also offers translation companies the opportunity to expand their services to support the hotels in their Mandarin translations. The translation companies, especially those located in the most popular cities, are in an ideal position to help their closest hotels and restaurants.

To read the full report, you can go to: http://www.citmhotels.com/

Here at Romo Translations, we are based in London, naturally one of the most popular destinations for Chinese tourists. We have expert Chinese translators available to help support hotels both locally and nationally, develop and provide Chinese translations for their guests. If you’re looking to improve your Chinese translation services, we would be delighted to hear from you.  Please contact us on 0203 696 8680.