Edinburgh has officially become Scotland’s first city to be ‘China ready’ after launching its brand new, fully translated ‘Welcome to Edinburgh’ Guide in Chinese. Strengthening the position of Scotland’s capital as the UK’s most visited city outside London for Chinese tourists, the guide will initially have a print run of 100,000 distributed around the city to help Chinese visitors to navigate Edinburgh’s most popular attractions.
The new guide is part of an initiative from Landmark Press, which is already heavily involved in the city’s tourism. According to the company’s general manager Andrew Murphie, a recent survey highlighted the need for the translated guide when it was revealed to be the third most common request from Chinese tourists, after free WiFi and a kettle.
So aside from ensuring that the city’s kettle stocks remain high, how did Edinburgh make the journey to becoming ‘China ready’ and what can we learn from its approach?
Becoming ‘China ready’
The creation of the guide was initially prompted by the city’s China Ready initiative, which was launched in 2015 in response to growing numbers of Chinese tourists. According to the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group (ETAG), the initiative aimed to bring together a range of activities and information to provide support for Edinburgh’s businesses in light of increased travel from China.
The initiative covered preferences and expectations of Chinese tourists, practical advice on translation services and how social media could be used to encourage and welcome Chinese visitors. These key factors have been reflected in the new guide, which has been carefully translated in both language and content to cover the issues and considerations of Chinese tourists. ETAG has even included a ‘survival guide’ in a bid to welcome tourists to the city and address any of their initial concerns or anxieties.
Rob Lang, the Chair of the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group’s China Ready Initiative, and head of marketing at Edinburgh Airport, commented: “The city’s first-ever Mandarin ‘Welcome to Edinburgh’ Guide from Landmark Press is packed with information from businesses offering a warm welcome to Chinese visitors.
“The guide is another welcome addition to the range of media being provided to our Chinese guests as we strive to become a “must see, must visit” destination for this influential market.”
What can you learn?
One of the main points to take away from Edinburgh’s ‘China ready’ attitude is the emphasis in embracing the language and culture of the city’s overseas visitors. In short, the team behind the translation did their research and adapted their content to suit the audience.
This carefully considered translation of the city’s guide into Chinese encourages tourists to feel welcome and comfortable in an unfamiliar city.
Furthermore, the inclusion and translation of information in the guide that is particularly relevant to China, has helped to make visitors’ concerns feel perfectly normal as get used to the city.
This same approach can be applied to businesses and organisations moving into the Chinese market themselves, or welcoming colleagues from the country to their own European offices.
Keep the focus on the target audience and not just on translation. Think about the audience needs and how this may differ in priority from your domestic market.
Consider what they want to hear, what would reassure and inform them and how you can communicate all this in their own language with words and colloquialisms that will feel natural to them.
With the help of an effective translation service you can achieve all this with ease, resulting in culturally sensitive business documents and websites that embrace both the language and the attitudes of your target market.
