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Do travel Web sites discriminate against non-English users?

September 5, 2008

Yes they do, according to a new survey by travel marketing firm Oban.

Travel sites ignore the needs of international users by offering English-only pages, the study concluded. That could be causing travelers extra frustrations — and costing these sites business.

Greig Holbrook, Oban’s managing director, says the findings surprised him.

What we had expected was that the travelers would say that they search in their native language. But instead, most of them admitted they were forced to search in English, since the travel sites often do not give them a multilingual option.

Nearly all the people interviewed by the company said they would prefer to search in their own language.

What languages should travel sites be offered in? Next to English, Spanish and Chinese were cited as the most frequently-used languages, followed by French and Dutch.

Take this poll and register your opinion.

<br /> scrolling=”no” width=”385″ height=”530″ frameborder=”no”<br /> marginheight=”0″ marginwidth=”0″><br /> Your browser doesn’t support inline frames – <a<br /> href=”http://www.pollthepeople.com/polls/38ZBqaLf/”>go here to view the<br /> poll</a>.<br />

There have been efforts to legislate multilingual Web sites — most notably in Canada — but perhaps in the end, the best argument for a translation is the economic one.

On the flip side, I wonder how many English-speaking travelers have encountered language barriers when using a travel site.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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14 comments

  • Jon

    Um, ok. Doesn’t your site discriminate against Japanese users then? And the New York Times discriminates against Germans! They MUST offer their newspaper in EVERY SINGLE LANGUAGE KNOWN TO MAN!

    Sure, it’s costing these sites business, but calling it discrimination is just ignorant.

  • Mike

    So what? I tried to book a cruise to the Greek Islands using the Greece-based company website. Guess what – no English option. Did I pull out the discrimination card? No. If I wanted to book on the Greek site, I should have learned Greek. My fault completely. I moved on and booked using a website in English. Exactly what non-English speakers should do when trying to book using English-based websites. Calling this discrimination is absolutely ridiculous.

  • Leonard

    I agree with Jon, it’s not discrimination – translation of every single page of every single website that offers travel deals/offers would be cumbersome, technically difficult and frankly isn’t cost-effective.

    A person with vision would see this as an opportunity in the marketplace and offer a travel site in Spanish, or Chinese, or French…etc etc. It is NOT however, discrimination. The people building, marketing and managing these sites happen to have English as their first language and run with it. There is nothing more to it.

    I am so tired of EVRYTHING being “discrimination this” or “discrimination that”.
    At the risk of sounding extremely arrogant ( and perhaps I am ) English seems to be the international default language. I have tried learning basic French, but every time I go to France, most of the tourist friendly areas are employed by bi-lingual Frenchmen/women who are eager to use their English. Surprising, considering France’s reputation for dismissive customer service to non-natives….or perhaps it was because they were horrified at my terrible French and cut me off after “bonjour”.

    In conclusion, its not discrimination and it does seem that English is the alternative for most bi-lingual people and therefore the best compromise in a world marketplace. If I came across a travel site in, for example, Russian…I would simply have to look elsewhere for my planning.

  • http://www.obanmultilingual.com Kaila

    These are all interesting comments.

    However, what we wanted to emphasise in our report was not the discrimination angle but the fact that many travel sites are missing out on a massive opportunity by not catering to international travellers’ needs.

    We went to London and spoke to international travellers from all over the world, most of whom spoke English as a second language. Most of them admitted that they would have preferred to research London destinations in their own language, but were not given the opportunity to do so.

    English is not the dominant language on the internet – 70 percent of internet search is not in English (http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm).

    As Leonard said, a visionary company would take on this challenge.

  • Ani

    I have used several international web sites that offer a few choices of languages when booking travel. It seems that they do this, because they are catering to a smaller local audience than the English language web sites. I booked a flight this summer on Sterling Air, a Danish based web site. While I am able to speak/read Danish, it was easier for me to switch to (British) English. (The price was still in DKR.) Limiting their website to Danish only, would severely limit their customer base and it is pretty cost effective to do so. It may not be so for the English only websites.

  • Mike

    Oh, boy…

    There is a podcast I listen to, “The World in Words,” which features a clip in its intro of a woman saying “Why, as an American, do I have to push a button to speak English?”

    The answer I always want to shout to her: “because some businesses have decided that it is in their best interest to offer service in multiple languages.” For example, I deal with two banks. One has a Spanish option in its phone menu, the other has only English. I’m sure the first one has more Latino customers than the second one. I’m not offended by the language policy of either company.

    I don’t think English only is discrimination. It costs extra to support multiple languages. If an airline or travel site decides it is in their best interest, they will invest in it. American Airlines did this recently by adding a Spanish version for US customers.

  • http://www.theonesd.com Heather

    I found a website that books travel arrangements and has multi-lingual employees. There is a new concierge group based in San Diego that offers services to members in Mexico and the US. Its great because there is someone who can help with a number of services that you will be able to communicate with. I found it at http://www.theonesd.com it is password protected so use the word “rouge” to enter it. It is for member only but Its definitely worth it instead of struggling with travel agencies that cannot communicate with you!

  • Carly

    I think Venere.com is one of the most popular multi-lingual websites. Personally, I feel it lacks in many of areas that draw me to a travel site, but when I read online travel forums people are always recommending it- perhaps these recommenders are non-native English speakers. That being said, a lot of travel sites are so basic that as long as you can read the alphabet in question you can figure out how to make a reservation. I’ve certainly booked my share of hotels and transportation on Italian, French, and Spanish websites without necessarily being able to decode every word. Most of the time it’s just common sense.

  • http://www.DiscoverAmerica.com Greg

    The newly launched official travel and tourism website of the United States – http://www.DiscoverAmerica.com – is offered in five languages that correspond to the country’s top inbound markets (Canada [both English and French], Mexico, UK, Germany and Japan). In fact, about 75 percent of all visitors to the USA come from one of these five markets. Users in market are directed to their appropriate language version through their browser, so, for instance, Germans (visiting the website in Germany) would see the German-language version of DiscoverAmerica.com; same for the rest of the markets. You can also ‘choose another country’ on each site to toggle between languages.

    DiscoverAmerica.com has content on all 50 states, up to 59 cities, the five U.S. territories and hundreds of attractions and activities in the USA. There is a community section for travelers’ comments and booking opportunities, too.

    The Travel Industry Association, who developed this website in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Commerce, plans to add other market-specific versions in the future as well, with China at the top of the list.

  • Bob

    I will start off by quoting Carly when she said “…a lot of travel sites are so basic that as long as you can read the alphabet in question you can figure out how to make a reservation. I’ve certainly booked my share of hotels and transportation on Italian, French, and Spanish websites without necessarily being able to decode every word. Most of the time it’s just common sense.”

    So much common sense that anyone who books a trip on a foreign flag carrier or LCC and does not look at the carrier’s website that is intended for its own nationals is truly missing some spectacular opportunities. Once you know exactly what you want and when you want it, it is easy to replicate on the foreign site and to try all the alternatives that you tried on the site intended for US consumption along with any others that appear to be available.

    An example of that hit me on the Air France French site when I needed a one-way CDG to Strasbourg. I had carefully priced it out on the online agents and the Air France US site and knew everything about it that Air France was revealing in English. But on the site intended for domestic use, I learned that there existed an internal France fare for senior citizens that was about a 40-50% discount for travel on the off-hour lights. And I learned that not because of reading French, but simply by noticing that there was a category available to enter the number of passengers that were seniors. When AF was happy to take my payment in Euros with my US addressed credit card, I was in for the deal.

    I have booked LCCs in their original languages when they had better deals than were being offered in English or when they were first out of the gate and the online agents had not yet caught up to them.

    I have also registered for their e-mailings and am of the opinion that it would take an idiot to get an e-mail that started out with a 20 point “PROMOZIONE” and not realize what was happening right below even if he did not exactly know where “Reggio di Calabria” could be found on a map. And when I booked in Italian on the website of the late, lamented LCC AlpiEagles, I used Babelfish or the Google language tool to help me decode their baggage limitations and other rules found in the small print.

    And in this day and age, you can believe that most of the Europeans that you will meet are sufficiently competent in English to navigate, sometimes with a bit of effort, the sites which the Oban survey was presenting to them although of course they would prefer to search in their own language.

    Also, the quote above that “70 percent of internet search is not in English” is a statistic particularly used in this case to mislead in order to give the impression that English is not the dominant language of the internet. Of course anybody would prefer to do a facts search in his own language and most of those who do would say that the preponderance of their searches lead to sites found only in English.

    And why are we wasting our time on this “study” which probably was designed to forward an agenda dreamed up by the marketing department of some second rate travel supplier looking to get a mention in the mainstream media.

  • http://www.obanmultilingual.com Kaila

    Just wanted to let everyone know that Poll the People have set up a poll for you to vote on this topic:

    http://www.pollthepeople.com/polls/38ZBqaLf/

    Will be back with results!

  • Pingback: Oban's Discrimination Debate poll | Oban Multilingual

  • Carver Farrow

    I clicked on OBAN and guess what, the very first page was all about multi-lingual issues. That does make on suggest that OBAN has an stake in the outcome of this debate.

    However, I have to assume that the owners of the web pages are in the best position to know their target audience and their needs.

  • Ronda

    I dont think its descrimination, however it could be in alot of travel companies best interest to make language options availiable, even if its just in the most popular languages. Its not all that hard to do, it just takes a bit of effort on the companies part to translate.

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