UK gets friendly: Landmarks to be renamed for Chinese tourists
18 Feb 2015 11:26 PM GMT
Britain's tourism authorities are renaming some of the country's key landmarks to make them more attractive to lucrative Chinese tourists.
In China it is popular to give names to favourite celebrities, places and foods that describe what people think of them. As part of the new campaign by VisitBritain, Stonehenge will translate as “Huge Stone Clusters” in Mandarin, Europe's tallest Building ? The Shard ? as “A Tower Allowing Us To Pluck Stars From The Sky” and Brighton's famous Royal Pavilion will be “John's Indian Palace”.
“Chinese visitors already stay longer in Britain than in our European competitor destinations and are high spenders,” said VisitBritain chief executive Sally Balcombe.
“Every 22 additional Chinese visitors we attract supports an additional job in tourism. We want to ensure that we continue to compete effectively in this, the world's biggest outbound market and ensure that we deliver growth and jobs across the nations and regions of Britain,” she said.
British place names cannot easily be translated into Mandarin, so VisitBritain invited Chinese people to come up with their own alternative names that are more descriptive and understandable. The Big Ben will be known to the Chinese as “Da Ben Zhong”, London Eye as “Lun Dun Yan” and Buckingham Palace as “Bai Jin Han Gong” which translates as “white, gold and splendid palace”.
In China it is popular to give names to favourite celebrities, places and foods that describe what people think of them. As part of the new campaign by VisitBritain, Stonehenge will translate as “Huge Stone Clusters” in Mandarin, Europe's tallest Building ? The Shard ? as “A Tower Allowing Us To Pluck Stars From The Sky” and Brighton's famous Royal Pavilion will be “John's Indian Palace”.
“Chinese visitors already stay longer in Britain than in our European competitor destinations and are high spenders,” said VisitBritain chief executive Sally Balcombe.
“Every 22 additional Chinese visitors we attract supports an additional job in tourism. We want to ensure that we continue to compete effectively in this, the world's biggest outbound market and ensure that we deliver growth and jobs across the nations and regions of Britain,” she said.
British place names cannot easily be translated into Mandarin, so VisitBritain invited Chinese people to come up with their own alternative names that are more descriptive and understandable. The Big Ben will be known to the Chinese as “Da Ben Zhong”, London Eye as “Lun Dun Yan” and Buckingham Palace as “Bai Jin Han Gong” which translates as “white, gold and splendid palace”.
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