In Spain we have a great presence of international tourism. In fact, in 2017, we had 82 million tourists from other countries. With this data up our sleeve, it’s logical to think that an online presence of tourism companies is vitally important. And even more so if their websites are properly adapted to other languages thanks to the efforts of a translation agency.
Why adapt your tourism texts to other languages?
If you have or run a restaurant, a hotel, or any other business related with international tourism, this is of interest to you. You have probably already carried out the digitalization of your business and you probably have a website, blog, presence in digital directories, and you may even accept reservations online.
This is really convenient for your possible customers to be able to find you from their countries of origin, but have you ever stopped to think about their perception of you?
If your website is designed only in one language, they may not be able to understand it. Surely it happens to you too when you look for information online and you feel much more comfortable reading it in your own language. And here is where two possible pathways open up: you can choose a machine translation solution like Google Translate, for example, which is much cheaper and easier to use, or you can decide on professional translation services.
If you opt to use a machine translation solution
If you decide on the cheaper route, there are a few things you should know. Firstly, while machine translation software is improving its technology little by little and it is currently pretty good, these solutions still make a lot of mistakes that your readers will notice from the very start — don’t forget that this is their mother tongue.
As an example, we need not look further than the official tourism site of Santander, which was re-done last year and translated into 7 languages. These translations include serious mistakes in all the languages. In English, things are noteworthy like:
– “Loot Center” or “Center Liner” (one translation or the other appears indistinctly throughout the text), instead of “Botín Art Center.”
– “Historic helmet,” to make reference to the historic center of the city.
– ”Palais des Festivals” when speaking of the “Palacio de Festivales” Theatre in the city. It is quite surprising that a translation to English uses these words in French.
And if we find these types of mistakes in the English version, which is the most well known language, just imagine the mistakes that are in the French, Italian, or German version.
If you decide to go with a professional translation company
A translation agency will help you not only to translate your texts correctly but also to give them the right touch so that they are adapted to the culture of the target country and connect on an emotional level with readers.
In addition, good professionals will help you to adapt your keywords and do SEO tasks for the target country of each language that you want to translate your site to.
In short, we invite you to use a translation agency from now on to get an increase in the international demand for your business.
This post is also available in: Español (Spanish) Français (French) Nederlands (Dutch)
