Travel

#4 Steps for Travel Companies Looking to Attract the Asian Travel Market

By Claire Goodswen, Lionbridge Solutions Architect

May 11, 2015

We all know the Chinese saying, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Wouldn’t it be nice if that journey ended at your hotel, restaurant, cruise, airline, rental agency or convention center?

You can make this happen – the Asian travel market is booming, and with the guidelines below, you can steer a good portion of this business to your doorstep.

1. Know the Numbers

To really understand what a game-changer Asian tourism is today, look at these data points:

• 53% increase in the number of Asian outbound trips from 2009 to 2013, according to the World Travel Monitor® almost double the overall growth rate—and is expected to increase further
• 50% of Asian outbound travel originates in China and Japan, according to the ITB World Travel Trends Report
• 25 million first-time travelers from China each year predicted over the next decade, or about 70,000 every day, according to Jens Thraenhart, co-founder of DragonTrail and publisher of ChinaTravelTrends
• 80% of Chinese travelers research brands and destinations online. according to Thraenhart
• 641% increase in outbound senior tourists from China between 2011 and 2030; 149% increase from South Korea and 32% from Japan, according to Shaping the Future of Travel in the Asia Pacific. a whitepaper from Amadeus
• $185 billion in annual tourism revenues from Millennial travelers who account for 20% of all international tourists, or about 200 million young people, according to a United Nations report
• 4 trips outside the country are taken each year by Chinese Millennials. twice as many as other Asian young people, according to Sammy Suzuki of AllianceBernstein
• 80% of Millennials are Gen C. a group characterized as “constantly connected”, according to a Google report

2. Address the Competition

Your competition is already taking notice of these trends. A quick look at what they’re doing makes it all too clear that companies looking to attract Asian tourists can’t afford to ignore or mishandle this market reality.

• Quantum of the Seas. the newest ship in the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, is making its homeport in Shanghai. This makes three ships sailing from Asia for this one cruise company alone.
• Starwood Hotels launched a personalized program to meet the unique needs of Chinese guests, including an in-hotel Chinese specialist; a packet of translated local area information including shopping, sightseeing and key hotel information; and even tailored amenities like, slippers and Chinese-friendly menu items.
• Hilton Hotels launched the Hilton Huanying program in destinations popular among Chinese visitors. Some of the front desk staff at these properties are fluent in Mandarin, and guest room amenities include Chinese television programming and tea service.

3. Acknowledge the Nuances

While it’s tempting to look at “the Asian travel market” as one big entity, it’s more accurate to think of it as hundreds or even thousands of specialized markets.

It can be hard to comprehend this in the Western world, but the Asian population consists of billions of people whose varying cultures are ancient and deeply rooted in religious and cultural mores that vary widely even within the same country. In order to win these customers, it’s essential to both translate into multiple languages and then localize for added relevance.

In addition, different age groups need and expect different things, so you must segment target audiences into more specific groups like Millennials, families, seniors, business travelers, etc. Customers in these and other groups have vastly different approaches to the Web and mobile technology, the content they consume, and the terminology they use to talk about it.

4. Speak Their Language

It’s essential to make your online and marketing materials available in travelers’ native languages. Fortunately, a great deal of this work is now both easy and cost-effective. Language Service Providers can help you reach the 80% of today’s 2.7 billion Internet users who are non-native-English speakers. After all, why limit your global marketing impact to only 20% of your potential customer base?

It’s crucial to translate. localize or transceate printed collateral (brochures, posters, publications, promotional emails, etc.), shore excursion guides, onboard and shore-side shopping guides, onboard newsletters, and customer service. And don’t forget to accommodate all those tourists searching for information online and via mobile devices with website translation and localization and international SEO.

Select an LSP with experience not only in the languages and cultures you’re targeting, but also in the travel and tourism industry. A combination of translation and localization expertise combined with industry knowledge ensures faster production and better end products.

The number of Asians traveling the world is growing by leaps and bounds, and you can profit from this boom by knowing the numbers, addressing the competition, acknowledging the nuances, and speaking your customers’ languages. Your journey toward increased profits is about to begin – take that first step now!