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Language boost for Yorkshire tourism

Yorkshire ’s tourism industry is about to be boosted by a new initiative for overseas visitors: a telephone card that lets you talk to an interpreter in over 100 languages.

International visitors are a key part of Yorkshire’s economy, spending around £300 million in the region every year. But two-thirds of these visitors do not speak English as a first language, and it is thought that accommodation providers and tourist attractions are missing out financially because of the language barrier.

A Yorkshire company has stepped forward with a solution: a pre-paid telephone card that gives tourism service providers the ability to speak their customers’ native language. Cardholders will be able to dial a freephone number and get help from a telephone interpreter in over 100 languages.

The new initiative has been launched by EITI, an interpreting and translation company that relocated to Yorkshire from the south-east of England in 2000. Carolyn Burgess, the organisation’s chief executive, believes the telephone interpreting cards will give a boost to tourism businesses in the region.

“On a purely financial level, businesses that can talk - and listen - to their customers in their own language are much more successful than those that can’t,” she says.

“But on a more fundamental level, this regional telephone interpreting initiative will help to reinforce Yorkshire’s image as being warm and friendly, yet hi-tech and commercially dynamic.”

EITI will be finalising the format of the telephone cards in consultation with regional tourism operators. It is currently envisaged that pre-paid, 10-minute cards will be sold to hotels, visitor attractions and transport companies. These businesses will then have the option of using the cards themselves, or reselling them to their customers.