The travel industry has become a global phenomenon, and as such, the need for translation is more significant than ever. This blog post will discuss 13 reasons why the travel and tourism industry needs a translation to stay competitive. Let’s dive right into it!
1. The travel and tourism industry is a huge market worldwide, with over $7,500 billion yearly revenue in 2017. English being the most widely used language in the world, cannot be enough to accommodate all the needs of this industry and, therefore, a need for a translation agency.
2. In 2016, China became the second-largest international tourist source market for France and the ninth-largest for the United States. However, in China, one in five travelers speaks English as a foreign language, and half of these people intend to improve their language skills.
3. In 2015, studies showed that the Spanish market was growing by 4% (that’s 3 million tourists more than 2014), and international tourism from Spain has been increasing by 5.4% per year since 2009.
4. In 2016, Spain welcomed 67 million international visitors – a significant increase from the 57 million tourists in 2015 and 52 million in 2014 -which meant that Spain was ranked second worldwide as a preferred tourist destination after France. It is estimated that 11% of these people speak English.
5. According to the World Tourism Organization, just under 200 million people speak English as a second language worldwide, and this figure is expected to grow by around 100 million in 2022, which means that more than 1 billion of the world’s population speaks English either as a first or second language! That being said, it is easy to imagine how much the travel and tourism industry could benefit from using a language that is understood by more than one-quarter of the world’s population.
6. In 2016, Chinese tourists made 142 million trips to other countries, increasing 13.5% from 2015. The United States was their favorite destination (the number one for Americans), with 8.6 million Chinese tourists visiting the United States in 2016, representing an increase of 21% from 2015. China is now the world’s largest outbound travel market and one of Spain’s leading destinations for private tours.
7. As we had already mentioned before, around 542 million international tourists visited Europe in 2015, spending about 256 billion euros or an average of €1,111 per trip. It is estimated that approximately 15% of international visitors to Europe speak English as a foreign language, which represents an increase of 3-4% in recent years. It is easy to consider how much the travel and tourism industry would benefit from offering information to this audience in their language.
8. In 2015, around 70 million Chinese people traveled abroad, spending $104 billion. For the first time, it was China that had spent more money outbound than the United States! As mentioned above, Spain is one of China’s favorite destinations, and 206,000 Chinese tourists visited our country in 2016, which represents an increase of 22.1% from 2015. It is estimated that around 30-40% of these travelers speak English.
9. In 2015, India was the 10th most popular tourist destination globally, with 8 million Chinese visitors and 350,000 US tourists making India their favorite holiday destination. However, only 2% of Indian residents speak English, which means there is an excellent potential for growth in this country.
10. In 2016, the UK was visited by 37 million tourists who spent £21 billion – €22 billion -, however, it should be taken into account that only 6-8% of the UK population speaks French or German. In other words, only a tiny percentage of UK citizens speak English as a foreign language.
11. According to the World Tourism Organization, around 1 billion Chinese people speak some level of English, with 87% having basic knowledge and 12% being fluent in the language. With these numbers, it is not hard to imagine the great potential that Chinese travelers could offer to any tourism industry that can provide information in English, especially if they are already traveling to the country.
12. Given the above data, it is easy to imagine how much travel and tourism service providers would benefit from English services. For the consumer, this means accessing highly technical information about their favorite destinations and even getting help from bilingual staff in their language.
13. English has quickly become the primary international language for tourism and travel, to such an extent that it is estimated that during the last decade, there has been a 44% increase in businesses whose main website is offered in different languages, but with English as their base. This clearly represents a great challenge for new businesses that are looking to expand their horizons.
Conclusion
The World Tourism Organization predicts that by 2030, the number of international tourists will increase to 1.8 billion and language barriers are one of the main obstacles preventing businesses from reaching this goal. English has become the primary language for tourism in recent years because it is spoken by over 25% of people living on Earth. This means that if your business doesn’t offer services in multiple languages, including English, you’re missing out on a significant portion of potential visitors who speak only English! Let us know how we can help make sure your website or marketing materials are ready to be used internationally – our team is waiting to hear from you!
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