Guide helps business owners to communicate with tourists

The Paris Regional Tourism Council has launched a new program called Do You Speak Touriste, which offers business owners advice on how to communicate with visitors of different world countries.

Taking a trip to a country that speaks a foreign tongue can be tricky for tourists – but also for business owners dealing with customers who don’t understand the language. The Paris Regional Tourism Council has now launched a new program called Do You Speak Touriste, which aims to tackle this problem by offering advice on how to communicate with visitors of different world countries.

Designed for restaurateurs, hoteliers, taxi drivers and other commercial business owners in the city, the online guide identifies some of the common terms in each industry and offers translations in ten different languages, ranging from English to Japanese. However, the service also identifies some of the common traits of each nationality to give users a better idea of what they expect from their business. Using government data, the site provides cheat sheets that show how each country’s tourists like to spend their money, what their personality is like and how to be polite around them. The following video explains – in French – a little bit more about the scheme:

Given that tourism is an important source of income for Parisian businesses, the scheme aims to help proprietors make the most of each guest by learning how to better cater for their needs. Are there other ways to ensure companies can escape making a cultural faux-pas when doing business?