the 2008 Olympic Games are upon us, and though this article from HotelInteractive.com is focused on hotels serving Chinese visitors to America, you may find a few tips in it for your own businesses.

While many Americans will travel to China this year to witness the Olympic Games in Beijing, American hotel owners will soon see an increase in Chinese visitors to the United States.

A new agreement signed between the United States and China has the potential to boost tourism and hotel room occupancy for those U.S. hoteliers who take advantage of its provisions.

Chinese government regulations typically restrict domestic Chinese companies from organizing and marketing package tours to countries that do not have their government's approval.

But an agreement signed in December 2007 now allows Chinese travel agencies to work with American companies to organize and market group leisure tours to the United States.

With the 1.3 billion people of one of the world's largest economies now able to more easily visit the United States, you should consider these new guests when planning your future marketing operations.

These new visitors will seek out lodging (and other services - Ed.) that will cater to their needs. Like any international visitor, they will look to you for security, a friendly atmosphere, and tourism advice on how they can enjoy their stay.

There are many things an hotelier can do to open their doors to more Chinese visitors:

• Market your hotel on the Internet using Chinese-language Web pages. China has a growing Internet presence, with 210 million users now online. In fact, China is now just five million users short of surpassing the U.S. as the world's largest Internet market.
• Make it easy for your Chinese guests to call home. You can provide clear and concise operating instructions and rate information.
• You can also provide fee-based interpretation services, such as Language Line Services (1-800-752-6096 or www.languageline.com).
• Also provide simple instructions for in-house dialing on how to obtain services such as wake-up calls, housekeeping, or the bell captain.
• Provide in-room slippers. This is a must for Chinese visitors.
• Replace your directional and emergency signs with international symbols.
• Provide basic hotel directions in Chinese, such as which floors contain the restaurant, public restrooms, swimming pool, etc.
• Maps of your hotel's surrounding area described with Chinese-language captions can also be extremely helpful.

International visitors are making up a growing segment of the American hospitality industry. This vast market will be wide open to those who take the time to prepare a friendly welcome for their new guests.

For more of HotelInteractive.com, click here

By permission of HotelInteractive.com, copyright 2008

A multilingual spectator service call center for the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games was launched in Beijing on July 2.

From July 2 to September 25, spectators from at home and abroad can call the 12308-hotline to obtain relevant information services.

The center offers information covering Olympic traffic, Olympic venues, events, admission and security notes, venue facilities and services. All telephone inquiries will be addressed to the caller's satisfaction within one minute. This hotline will provide services in 14 languages. In addition to the three official languages - Chinese, English, and French - Japanese, Spanish, Arabic and other languages will be available.

For the visitors coming from southern China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, Cantonese and Minnan dialects are also available.

The Olympic Call Center has a total of 500 hotlines. To ensure uninterrupted access every day from 7:00 am to 10:00 pm, 1,500 volunteers will be on duty at a time.

According to Zhang Zhenliang, vice-director of the Volunteer Department of BOCOG, the center has a content-rich database which covers all aspects of the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games, including tourism, transportation and accommodation.

Hotlines opened:

• English: 12308002
• Japanese: 12308004
• Korean: 12308010
• Mandarin: 12308001
• Chinese Cantonese: 12308015
• Chinese Minnan: 12308016
• Note: Other languages are accessible through a switchboard service

Courtesy of People's Daily Online

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One of the chief characteristics of English is its teeming vocabulary, an estimated 80% of which has come from other languages!

Linguistic borrowing has occurred over many centuries, whenever English speakers have come into contact with other cultures, whether through conquest and colonization, trade and commerce, immigration, leisure travel, or war.

While English has borrowed most heavily from the languages of Europe and the Near East, it has also acquired many loan words from Asia, sometimes through the intermediary of Dutch, the native language of the merchant-sailors who dominated the Spice Islands trade in the 17th century.

Many of these borrowed words no longer seem foreign, having been completely assimilated into English.

Some examples are boondocks, gingham, and ketchup. Others are still strongly associated with their country of origin, such as terms for specific "ethnic" dishes or the different schools of martial arts.

Here is a sampling of Chinese words many of us have adopted for our own:

Cantonese (southern China, Hong Kong)

• chop suey, from a word meaning "miscellaneous bits."
• chow, related to chop in chop suey, from a word meaning "food, miscellany."
• kumquat, (pictured) a small citrus fruit.
• typhoon, from the words for "great wind."
• yen, meaning a "yearning" or "strong desire."

• gung ho, a motto used by the Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society, from words meaning "work together." It was picked up by U.S. Marines during World War II.
• kow-tow, from words meaning "to knock [one's] head."
• kung fu, from gong fu, meaning "skill, art."

For more Asian words we find in our English lexicon, read the entire InfoPlease.com story here

By permission: Imbornoni, Ann-Marie. "Gung ho, Tycoon, Amuck." Infoplease. © 2000-2006 Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease. 28 Apr. 2006

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