Tourism? Please wait a moment.

 Although tourism is a glamorous industry, the mechanisms of succeeding in a tourism business are usually mundane. One constant challenge on Saipan, and in a lot of other places, is maintaining workable communications across a variety of languages. I cast a gimlet eye on this problem a long time ago, which compelled me to make a list of useful phrases for addressing tourists. 
The idea of the list was to be as short as possible, not as long as possible.

Glamorous? No. Necessary? Probably.

Keep in mind that tourism workers don’t necessarily speak their clients’ languages. On Saipan it’s easy to encounter four languages in a single day among tourists. How many people can speak four languages? A few, I’m sure, but hardly enough to staff the entire tourism industry.

Of course, anyone making a phrase list will have to decide which languages to include. But if that’s a daunting decision they’re in the wrong industry.

Anyway, as for my list, I was sharing it with a friend who is getting into the tourism business. Most of the words and phrases, such as “please” and “thank you,” are so obvious they don’t rate mention here.

But a few items aren’t so obvious. They can provide insights into the broader factors behind international tourism and communications.

Here’s something so simple we can easily overlook it: Now that you’ve recovered from your St. Patrick’s Day party, you know your name, right?

Well, that’s good. But how about your tourism customers? Do they know your name in their language? If they do, you’ve got a better chance of getting some feedback from them.

Feedback isn’t always easy to get. Many tourists are reluctant to speak up when they need attention. This is especially common with Saipan’s tourists. The language barrier is one reason, and a reluctance to feel embarrassed by calling attention to themselves in front of other people is another reason. Getting your name into your clients’ heads (again, in their language) is one of the only cards you’ve got to play, since this will at least make it easier for them to beckon you should they so desire.

Better yet, you can play another card, the business card, and get your name into their hands as well. I think that the humble business card has been overlooked in today’s age of information overload and electronic razzle-dazzle. I’ll point out the obvious and mention that a business card is an easy asset for repeat bookings, word of mouth referrals, and so on.

Business owners, though, have an understandable habit of falling in love with their more impressive marketing materials. Customers don’t always share the infatuation. I’ve seen a lot of glossy brochures tossed into the garbage over the years, while a lot of business cards were tucked into wallets and purses for safe-keeping. Maybe force of habit plays a role in this: People seem accustomed to keeping business cards, at least for awhile.

Now that we’ve tucked away that little matter, I’ll shift back to the spoken realm and mention what I mark as the single most important phrase for the tourism business: “Please wait a moment.” This is something I never would have figured from sitting in an office, but in the real world the evidence is undeniable.

Well, I’ve just hit a couple of items here, but as you can see, it’s a realm that deserves some thought.

Moving to a broader take for managers, I’ll note that any business, given the ubiquity of free software such as OpenOffice Writer, can develop a simple little phrase page for its employees. The “table” function in this, or any similar, word processor makes this stuff easy to write and update. Anyway, whatever the mechanism is, the concept is the same, since such a page provides a great example of the five P’s: Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.

The five P’s apply to all businesses, of course. But tourism seems to really amplify this factor since it’s such a dynamic industry. Anything that looks easy in tourism is usually the result of months, or even years, of hard work in advance by somebody behind the scenes; I’m not just talking about language now, I mean the entire array of tasks such as marketing, operations, vendor relations, accounting, transportation, and so on. It’s largely a matter of organizing hundreds of pesky details into a system of methodical steps.

That’s not fun stuff. Details never are. But the results of a successful tourism business can be glamorous indeed, which is one happy notion that doesn’t require translation.

Visit Ed Stephens Jr. at EdStephensJr.com. His column runs every Friday.