Successful Localization in Travel and Hospitality: Tips and Tricks

Travel and hospitality has been an international business since there was no such thing as an international business. The essence of the industry has always been multilingual and cosmopolitan, since it has always been about people who travel – and in the age of Internet, it has never been easier to reach out to travellers from every spot on the planet, making localization in travel and hospitality an essential tool in the industry.

Once you have set up your business and your website is online, there are several points of consideration that will lead you through the localization process easily and successfully.

Attract visitors to your website

First and foremost, your website should feature engaging, high quality content, and it should have an intuitive, attractive, and user-friendly design. No matter how good your SEO strategy may be, poorly written or translated content and a cluttered design will neither attract nor retain visitors.
Your content should be well-written in the target language and well-presented in accordance with the target culture. LSPs who provide complete language solutions – and these include writing original articles – are extremely helpful.

SEO is based on territory, not on languages

Good content and a well-designed website will bring you visitors and a good ranking, but you should be aware that Google and other search engines operate on the national / regional level, not on the linguistic level.

This means that an English website with a good ranking in the UK will not work all that well in, say, New Zealand. This is why, in addition to understanding subtle language differences, a thorough understanding of the Internet and SEO is required for a successful localization project.

No matter how good your SEO strategy may be, poorly written or translated content and a cluttered design will neither attract nor retain visitors.

Conversion of visitors

Attracting visitors is one thing, but persuading them to use your services is quite another.

Well-written, engaging, and original content in the target language is simply a must. Feature informative content on your destination’s attractions, tell stories about your hotel or restaurant, be creative and let your website be an inviting corner of the Internet that presents your business at its best to foreign visitors perfectly in their own language — all of this can be achieved through a carefully planned and executed localization process combined with a smart SEO strategy.

Communication with visitors

Social media is the dominant channel of communication of the modern age. Keeping in touch with your visitors after their holiday ends will surely enhance their chances of returning the next year – or even making your business their preferred holiday spot.

Running it all – localization, SEO, and social media communication in a friendly, engaging, original, and – above all else – properly localized manner is more than likely to bring success to your travel or hospitality business.