London: In order to attract Chinese tourists, Britain tourism is now giving a makeover to high-sounding British places names with Mandarin, says VisitBritain, a national tourism agency funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. This agency is responsible for promoting Britain worldwide and developing its visitor economy.
VisitBritain further claims that GREAT Britain' campaign, launched to entice Chinese tourists, has so far been successful.
Chinese consumers were invited to come up with the most fitting, amusing and memorable Chinese names for prominent landmarks through online polling on social media. So far 101 names have been suggested.
The themes for GREAT Britain campaign include royal, quirky, shopping, luxury, events, film, literature, countryside, natural wonders, history, castles, food and drink.
In China, it's very common to give names to favourite celebrities, places and foods as a literal description of what they think about them.
London's iconic skyscraper “The Shard” could be “A tower allowing us to pluck stars from the sky” in Chinese, and Savile Row, well known for its high-end tailors, could become “Tall, rich, handsome street” or “Custom-made rich people street”.
The proposed Mandarin name for the Scottish delicacy “haggis” is “Made of sheep's stomach and smells good”, while Edinburgh's Royal Mile Avenue is: “A beautiful street with long history and profound culture”.
Hadrian's Wall, the ruin that marked the northern frontier of the Roman Empire, is the grand-sounding “Wall of Eternity” and the seaside resort of Blackpool could be “A place that is happy to visit”.
The aim behind this campaign is to expand tourists participation in promoting tourism in Britain. It is presumed that travelers, who come to Britain, will post photos of themselves experiencing a point of interest, along with their suggested Chinese name on the social media channels.
According to reports, this campaign has been effective in engaging potential Chinese visitors.
Chinese visitors to Britain spent nearly £500 million ($771 million) in 2013 and the government is aiming to double that amount by 2020.
The number of tourists to Britain reached a record high of 34.8 million in 2014 — six percent higher than in 2013, VisitBritain said.
All the new Chinese names are likely to be unveiled in March 2015 by VisitBritain.
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