Scottish tourism desperate to accommodate Chinese

Fluent in English and Mandarin/Cantonese? English and Russian? You may have a job waiting for you in Scotland. The tourism authorities in Scotland are seeking candidates fluent in these combinations of languages to cater to the huge influx of visitors form the two giants of Russia and China.

The Chinese government only began to allow its citizens to travel to Britain in 2005, and many have seized the opportunity, only to find a major language issue, as can be expected, no one really jives in Chinese in Edinburgh or Glasgow.

The Chinese wave in relatively new, but as Melanie Angus, trade marketing manager for VisitScotland says, “The Russians have been travelling to the UK in numbers for the past ten or 15 years. Those who come visit London first, but Scotland is the next leading destination.”

There will be an official training course for the potential guides at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. The funding comes partly from the Scottish Executive, though trainees will be expected to pay fees. The VisitScotland program has a target of baiting 30,000 Chinese and 32,000 Russians in the next three years.