The impact of the travel and tourism industry on the various economies of the world is enormous. In 2024 the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) predicts the final figures will see “the sector’s global economic contribution set to reach an all-time high of $11.1 trillion.”
Industries with such impact worldwide – there isn’t a country in the world that doesn’t benefit from travel and tourism – need the help of Language Service Providers (LSPs) to create a path that’s as frictionless as possible to conduct business. Producing material in multiple languages is often no easy feat for companies within the industry, which is why we support our clients in getting everything right, and this starts with the basics.
Here's our top advice for brands and businesses in the travel and tourism industry who are looking to stay ahead of the game and keep their content accurate, fresh and relevant in any language.
When you consider the types of content you consume every day, it’s unlikely that it’s just text. All forms of content need to be translated, and localized so that they’re culturally appropriate, when your business is heading into a new market.
So, as well as text, don’t forget:
If you’re trying to attract customers from Southeast Asia, but you’re using the same images as you do with your American clientele, then you’re not going to grab them on the emotional level that drives decision making.
Change the city images from downtown New York and Houston to Manila and Bangkok. Or maybe you’re going into a Muslim region where you’d have to make sure that any imagery is appropriate to their customs on showing skin?
The more your imagery reflects the world of the user, the more you’re demonstrating that your brand cares about their culture.
There are three routes you can take when translating your video content: add subtitles, record new localized voiceovers or do a complete reshoot of the content.
Reshooting is expensive (but shows you care and could be the most accurate) and sub-titles can be done fairly inexpensively (but if your work force has literacy difficulties the message could be ineffective).
This requires similar considerations to video. Do you use voice-over, redub lines or recreate everything from scratch? Each of the options has a different price tag which could well determine the route forward.
It’s worth noting that new Artificial Intelligence (AI) voice-over tools have become much better and less expensive in the last couple of years, but depending on how niche you want to get, certain languages and dialects may not yet be supported.
We always bring linguists to the team who know the terminology, acronyms and jargon of your industry. They’re subject matter experts.
This is equally as important as knowing the target language and culture. The best people for your project understand the tourism industry from the inside out.
AI-powered Machine Translation (MT) can help you save time and money by working for you 24/7 to do a lot of the translation heavy lifting.
Depending on what needs translating (is it dynamic and public-facing, or is it just a lot of back-end archival material you need for your business processes?) will determine how much human intervention, or post-editing, is required.
Let MT do the first pass at the content and then bring in the human touch so the translated content is totally accurate.
Travel and tourism is all about bringing your audience emotionally into what your business is offering. Straight-forward translation might be word-for-word accurate, but it can miss the target when it comes to conveying a marketing or advertising message.
When you’re building strategies, hooks and slogans that will help you win the attention battle with the public, transcreation is the way to go. This is the art of translating the essence and meaning of a creative campaign, so it’s culturally contextual and relevant, without it necessarily being a direct translation.
Just ask American Airlines who were so excited about their all-leather seats that they forgot to transcreate their “Fly in Leather” slogan for the Spanish-speaking Mexican market and settled for the direct translation of “Vuela en Cuero” or “Fly Naked”. Not really the message they were going for.
Beyond just language, to gain real traction in a new market, you need to localize your content. This is translation that drills down into a specific country, community or culture.
This approach pays attention to the details that help you shed your “outsider” status quickly and become a seamless part of your customer’s lives.
For example, if you’re expanding into Indonesia, is it the whole country or just a region? It’s the second most linguistically diverse country in the world with over 700 languages spoken.
Which ones will you need to focus on or are you ok with just Indonesian, the national language? It’s also home to six religions spread over 17,508 islands…who do you want to talk to and how?
Finding the right LSP for your business is incredibly important. Needless to say, not all LSPs are the same and this partnership, as your linguistic requirements grow, goes far beyond just being a supplier.
In the most successful circumstances, they’re a strategic arm of your organization that’s going to advise you on how to maximize your investment and be the team that helps you through expansion and localization.
Make sure that not only can they do the obvious job of translating your content quickly and accurately, but that they have specific knowledge of the travel and tourism industry.
Also, you’ll be working very closely with the LSP’s (your) team so are the people and processes the right fit with your team and working practices? Do their brand values align with yours? Is this a business relationship that will exist harmoniously away from spreadsheets and data?
The right LSP will keep half an eye on your future with you. They’ll build linguistic assets such as a term base and glossary so that you save money on upcoming work. Essentially, these set your linguistic rules and store translated material so you don’t have to pay for it to be translated again if content is duplicated for future uses.
The travel and tourism industry is very competitive. Small details can make a big difference. Now you should have a bit of a road map outlining the main things you need to consider as you develop your business into new language markets.
This article will help you find the right LSP who can deal with all your forms of content under one roof. One that can bring in the right team of translators and transcreators, help you localize and use technology to your advantage, and support you on the way to success in any language, in any territory.
Of course, we’d love to be that partner. At LinguaLinx, we can help you bring your brand or products to another country, culture or community.
Consultations are free and there’s no obligation. You’re in safe hands with us as we’re ISO 17100 and ISO 9001 compliant, have over twenty years of professional translation experience, and have earned the trust of organizations around the world.