Travel and tourism content sells an experience nobody has had yet, which is why it breaks under literal translation more visibly than almost any other category. A destination page, a tour description or an itinerary works by building anticipation, and anticipation is carried by register and implication rather than by the facts being correct.

The other thing that makes travel content hard is that it is two documents at once. Half of it is inspiration — why go, what it will feel like. Half of it is logistics — transfers, inclusions, visa notes, cancellation terms. The first half needs rewriting for each market. The second half needs rendering accurately and left alone.

This piece sets out what is different about travel content, where transcreation belongs in it, the challenges that recur, how multilingual search works in the sector, and what we can evidence from our own travel and attraction work.

Key Takeaways

  • Split inspiration from logistics before pricing anything. The inspiration half justifies
    transcreation; the logistics half should be accurate, plain and cheap.
  • Travel is a source-market business, so the language list should follow where travellers come
    from, not where the operator is based.
  • Translated keywords are not local keywords. What travellers in a market type is researched in
    that language, and built into the copy as it is written.

We define transcreation as “creative translation”, a process that adapts the emotional expressions and contextual relevance of the source message that goes beyond literal meaning of words. Four things have to arrive together for it to work: language, emotion, culture and your brand’s tone of voice.

Why travel content is harder than it looks

In travel, the product does not exist until the traveller arrives — so the copy is the product at the point of sale.

A hotel at least has a room with measurable features. A tour, a destination or an itinerary is a promise about how several days will feel. The copy has to build that picture for a reader whose reference points, assumptions about what counts as an attraction, and tolerance for superlative language all differ by market.

Two further complications are specific to the sector. Seasonality inverts across the equator, so a northern-hemisphere campaign calendar is wrong for half the audience. And the same destination carries different associations in different source markets — what is sold as exotic to one market is a weekend break to another, and the copy that works for one insults the other.

The challenges that recur

Three problems account for most of the difficulty, and they are structural rather than linguistic.

  1. Cultural reference points. Travel copy leans on comparison — “like
    Tuscany, but quieter” — and comparisons do not travel. The reference has to be
    replaced with one that lands in the target market, which is a writing decision rather than a
    translation decision.
  2. Linguistic density. Travel writing uses compression: adjective stacks, long
    noun phrases, place names doing double duty. Several languages cannot carry that compression, and
    the copy either runs long or goes flat. Rebuilding it is the work.
  3. One voice across many markets. Travel brands commission by market, so the
    Japanese site is written by one team and the German site by another, and the brand ends up with
    several personalities. Holding one voice is a managed activity, not a default.

The upside is proportionate. A travel brand whose copy reads as though it was written in the reader’s market, by someone who has been to the destination, is doing something most of its category is not. The mechanism behind that is in creativity and emotion in transcreation.

What to transcreate, and what to translate

Content Treatment Why
Destination and itinerary copy Transcreation Pure anticipation. A carried-
across line does not build it
Tour and experience descriptions Transcreation over a fixed factual spine Durations, inclusions and grades must match across languages; the appeal has to be rebuilt
Campaign and seasonal copy Transcreation, with the calendar checked Seasonality and holiday timing differ by market
eDMs and remarketing Transcreation Repeat contact is where an inconsistent
voice shows
Booking flow, forms, confirmations Localisation Address, date, name-order
and phone conventions; text expansion breaking buttons
Inclusions, transfers, visa and health notes Translation Accuracy is the
whole requirement
Cancellation and booking terms Translation Plain, exact, locally
compliant

The same sorting logic, applied to hotel estates, is in transcreation in hotels and hospitality; the campaign-calendar version is in marketing translation for travel brands.

Multilingual search in travel

Travel is a search-led category, and translated keywords are not local keywords.

Travellers in different markets look for the same trip using different words, different phrase lengths and sometimes different platforms. A list of English keywords rendered into Japanese gives you the English concept in Japanese, which is not what Japanese travellers type. The research has to be done in the target language, and the findings built into the copy as it is written rather than retrofitted afterwards. That is how we handle multilingual SEO: final localised keywords are incorporated into the transcreation process itself.

The technical half belongs to the same job — hreflang signalling so search engines serve the right language version, localised titles, meta descriptions, URLs and image alt text. The longer treatment is in website translation for SEO and user experience.

Choosing the language list

In travel the list follows the source markets, not the destination.

An operator in Singapore selling to Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese and Indian travellers needs a different set from one selling the same destination into Europe. The practical test is where the bookings and the enquiries already come from, plus the one or two markets the business has decided to open. Depth in four markets, including the eDM and confirmation estate, beats a homepage in eleven.

We work in 30 languages — 18 Asian, 10 European and 2 Middle Eastern — so the constraint on a travel programme is normally the client’s demand evidence rather than coverage. Where the Chinese market is the priority, the specifics are in Chinese-market hotel marketing.

How the work runs

A supplier that can name its steps can tell you which one you are in. Ours runs in six:

  1. Understand the Project Brief. The content, the markets, the purpose and the constraints.
  2. Pre-Transcreation Study. Reviewing brand materials, style and tone, and uncovering the market-specific technical jargon and colloquial terms the content will need.
  3. Transcreation. The writing, drawing on the Translation Memory built for your brand.
  4. Client Review. Your own market teams read the content before it is live.
  5. Update and Approval. Revisions, then sign-off.
  6. Final Delivery. Into the system it has to live in, or as artwork ready to print.

What we can evidence

An airport, an attraction, an integrated resort and a serviced-residence group — scope and language counts we can stand behind.

  • For Changi Airport Group we won a government public tender to take web content and literature from English into Simplified Chinese for Chinese leisure and business travellers. Our Shanghai editorial team researched the travel apps those travellers actually use, and we reviewed the client’s existing Chinese content as part of the work.
  • For Gardens by the Bay we won a public tender that included trials in ten regional languages, then a two-year contract as a preferred vendor, producing marketing and media brochures in 10 languages with artwork proofing and Translation Memory reuse across the programme.
  • For Resorts World Sentosa we are the appointed language service provider to the Digital and Regional Marketing teams, covering Sitecore websites, leaflets, in-market brochures, display ads and eDMs in Chinese, Japanese, Bahasa Indonesia, Tamil, Vietnamese, Thai and more, with a Translation Memory maintained per language.
  • For Frasers Hospitality we relaunched the website in 15 languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and German — over half a million words in eight weeks, integrated into the client’s Adobe Experience Manager system, alongside CRM content, sales brochures and fact sheets.
  • In 2010 we won a public tender from the Singapore Tourism Board for the translation and multilingual production of Singapore’s Heritage Site Markers.

Where our clients publish visitor or footfall figures, those are the clients’ results and we do not present them as ours. What we can state is the scope, the languages and how the content was delivered.

The cost argument is about the programme, not the first invoice. A Translation Memory dedicated to your brand records how your content has been handled in each language, so repeat and updated material draws on work already paid for. Transcreated copy that is right first time avoids the redo cycle that literal translation sets off. And one partner across every touchpoint and market removes the coordination overhead of several suppliers, each interpreting your tone differently. Our clients cite those Translation Memory savings as one of the reasons they stay.

At IPPWORLD, we are an award-winning transcreation agency that specialises in creative translation and marketing localisation for the hospitality, travel, lifestyle and retail sectors. The award is Best Hospitality Creative Translation & Localisation Agency 2019, at the LUXlife Hospitality Awards. We have worked in this field since 1994, from Singapore, with an editorial team in Shanghai, and we work in 30 languages — 18 Asian, 10 European and 2 Middle Eastern.

Conclusion

Travel content rewards the brand that sorts it. Separate the inspiration from the logistics, fund the inspiration as writing, render the logistics accurately, pick the language list from where travellers actually come from, and do the keyword research in the target language rather than translating an English list.

None of that is exotic. It is just a sequence most travel programmes skip, which is why so much travel copy in second and third languages is correct and unpersuasive.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is transcreation in travel and tourism?
Rewriting travel marketing copy so it builds the same anticipation in the new market that the original built in its own. It covers destination and itinerary copy, tour descriptions and campaigns. It does not cover transfers, inclusions or cancellation terms, which should be translated accurately and plainly.
Which travel content should be transcreated and which translated?
Transcreate the inspiration half — destinations, itineraries, experience descriptions, campaign lines, eDMs. Translate the logistics half — inclusions, transfers, visa and health notes, booking and cancellation terms. Localise the booking flow for address, date and phone conventions and for text expansion.
How do we choose which languages to publish in?
From the source markets the bookings and enquiries already come from, plus the one or two the business has decided to open — not from the destination’s location. Four markets covered properly, including confirmations and eDMs, outperform eleven covered on the homepage only.
Why do translated travel keywords underperform?
Because they are the English concept in another language rather than what local travellers type. Phrase length, the words used for the trip type, and sometimes the platform all differ by market. The research has to be done in the target language and built into the copy as it is written.
Does seasonality affect multilingual travel content?
Yes, and it is one of the most common errors. Seasons invert across the equator and public holidays differ by market, so a single campaign calendar is wrong for part of the audience. The calendar has to be checked per market before the copy is commissioned, not after.
What evidence should a travel brand ask a supplier for?
Scope rather than outcomes. Ask which markets they have run simultaneously, how they held one voice across them, what delivery included, whether the Translation Memory is dedicated to the brand, and who writes the marketing copy in each language. Growth figures a supplier quotes are usually the client’s results, not the supplier’s.

Send us your content inventory and source-market list and we will mark up which items need rendering and which need rewriting. More on the category is on our marketing translation page, the process on How We Work, and the sector work in our travel and tourism practice. Related reading: website translation for travel brands, marketing translation for travel brands, marketing localisation in travel and transcreation and translation: their distinct roles.