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How travel and leisure companies purchase translation services

Travel and leisure is one of the largest industry sectors on the globe. Only in 2014, it generated US$7.6 trillion, and it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. LSPs should be happy about this, as this is a sector that is heavy with consumers needing a wide range of language services.

Revenue sources for LSPs from the travel and leisure sector

Buyers within the travel sector are obliged to concentrate on how they can improve the customer experience they’re working hard to sell.

Competition from new companies is always on the rise, and interviewees have reported that a big part of this is the consistency between what the customer experiences offline and online.

So, it’s not only translation that this sector is interested in, but other services like consulting expertise and transcreation. CSA research has outlined eight revenue sources in its report, “How Travel and Leisure Companies Buy Translation.” Below, we outline some of the most important.

Revenue opportunities for LS Ps in travel leisure sector
  • Global social

Many marketers in this sector report to be overwhelmed when they try to orchestrate Instagram, Facebook, Livechat, and a range of other social platforms to adopt a unified and global voice. There is huge opportunity for LSPs to create and translate the content needed to feed each platform.

  • Localized ASO and SEO

One major source of revenue for many travel sub-categories depends on click-throughs from metasearch engines and online travel agents. So, LSPs can provide guidance to travel companies on how to balance their global messaging versus being found on local search engines. Both experienced and new marketers can benefit from LSP services for markets like Russia and China where success depends on tie-ins to local search engines.

  • Global mobile

Mobile applications also present challenges for the travel industry. However, success on this platform is a major requirement for engaging with and winning over Millennial travelers. For LSPs, there is ample opportunity to support multilingual mobile initiatives as more organizations implement responsive design initiatives in line with Google’s update requirements.

Another great source of revenue for LSPs is enhanced language support, as more companies shift to offering more languages on mobile platforms as opposed to desktop. Another big issue for global apps is personalization. Chances are, buyers are happy to pay for market-specific knowledge like the fact that South Koreans expect a high discount when buying travel services on their mobile devices, but such a tactic may not resonate with all countries.

  • Post-edited and real-time translation

Travel is something that people want to share, regardless of whether the trip is for business or personal reasons. That has led to growing volumes of customer reviews, videos, photos, and a range of other user-generated content that interest people who speak different languages. Companies in the travel and leisure sector rely heavily on post-edited machine translation to fill the gap that human translation just cannot bridge due to time and cost considerations. Since many buyers don’t wish to develop such an expertise in-house, they look to LSPs to handle their translation needs.

This is just four needs the industry has for translation services, the CSA outlines even more!

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