· Booking.com research ‘Limitless Traveler’ exposes surprising gap between travel ambitions and reality
· Collaborates with ili, the world’s fastest offline translation device, to break down language barriers of vacationers and help travelers with simple interactions
Mumbai, 04 May 2018 – Technology has transformed travel, shrinking the world with thousands of destinations only a click away. Booking.com, one of the world’s largest travel e-commerce companies and a digital technology leader, revealed the findings of its new research ‘Limitless Traveler’ which states that Indian travelers are keen to push their limits and seek out the new, yet are being held back by language barriers and niggling anxiety. The research highlights that 21% Indian travelers faced language barriers during their recent travel exposing surprising gaps between their travel ambitions and reality.Booking.com, the global leader in connecting travelers with the widest choice of incredible places to stay, has conducted research across more than 20,500 global travelers in 28 countries to uncover the barriers and anxieties which prevent people from making the most of every trip and reveal how they can move to a state of truly limitless travel.
According to Vikas Bhola, Head for the Indian Sub-Continent, Booking.com, “As the global leader in connecting travelers with the widest choice of incredible places to stay, Booking.com believes in limitless travel - travel that fulfils all dreams, explores all experiences, walks all paths, and tries all tastes and textures, so a traveler comes back fulfilled, having missed out on nothing, with no regrets. As an extension of this, we wanted to further explore and celebrate what makes travelers tick, what could potentially hold them back and continue to support them in overcoming these barriers.”
Technology is the key to travelling limitlessly, however, even with technology at hand, more than eight in ten travelers have made travel mistakes (83%) which includes:
- Misunderstanding directions and getting lost (33%)
- Mispronouncing a word in the local language (23%)
- Misunderstanding what was ordered in a restaurant (28%)
Nevertheless, there is a strong desire to be a limitless traveler, with two in five Indian travelers aspiring to be one (40%) – over three quarters want to make the most of every travel experience and travel with no regrets (84%).
In a unique collaboration Booking.com has teamed up with ili, the world’s fastest offline translation device, designed to help travelers discover something new and translate simple phases, it allows you to ask questions at a shop, meet locals at a bar, thanks to it’s easy to use, on-the-fly translation. No internet connection is needed and it can translate words in up to 0.2 seconds. Simply push a button and within seconds you can start using ili to translate your words and the output speaker faces towards the person you’re talking to, making it easy for them to hear. As light as a passport, the ili device only weighs 42 grams and the ergonomic design with rounded corners fits comfortably and naturally in your hand. It also comes with a strap that allows you to keep it around your neck wherever you go.
Currently available only in the US, Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, has already been used by over 50,000 travelers around the world. The one-way device is available in the following languages:
- English (input) to Spanish, Mandarin, and Japanese
- Mandarin (input) to Japanese and English
- Japanese (input) to Korean, Mandarin, and English
- Korean (input) to Japanese