Chinese renaming gives Welsh tongue-twister a healthy new makeover

LONDON — Savile Row in London is the Tall, Rich, Handsome Street, the soaring Shard building is a Star Plucking Tower and kilt-wearing Scotland’s Highland Games are the Strongman Skirt Party, said a set of Chinese names for 101 British tourist destinations and events unveiled yesterday.

VisitBritain, the United Kingdom’s national tourism agency, is giving the UK’s most-loved attractions a mandarin makeover as part of a campaign to lure more high-spending Chinese visitors.

VisitBritain aims to boost revenue from Chinese tourism to £1 billion (S$2.1 billion) annually by 2020, up from £492 million in 2013. Touristsfrom China spend an average of £2,508 per visit, more than triple the overall average of £640.

“China is a different country with a different language and British names don’t necessarily mean anything to the Chinese,” said VisitBritain’s head of overseas operations Robin Johnson. “This (campaign) creates names that actually bring to life what the attractions are. We need to bring out the warmth and welcome, which are so important to Chinese visitors.”

The names were proposed by millions of Chinese social media users over the past 10 weeks, with a total of 13,000 suggestions.

In an outbreak of online democracy,these suggestions were whittled down to three leading contenders for each of the 101 attractions by a voting process on VisitBritain’s Chinese website.

The outright winner of the naming ballot, with 15,177 votes, was a suggestion by an Internet user identified as Qiao Chen for his rendering into Chinese of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch — the village in Wales that has the longest place name in Europe.

He suggested that the place be called Jian Fei Cun or Healthy Lung Village. Explaining his recommendation on the website, he said: “This village has a very long name and it is said that its inhabitants always say its whole name in one breath, showing that they have big and healthy lungs.”

That pitch was sufficient to relegate Nan Ji Nan Wang Cun or Hard-to-Remember-Hard-to-Forget Village” to second position with 13,200 votes.

Britain has lagged behind in attracting Chinese tourists partly because visitors must get a UK visa separate from the common one that covers members of the European Union’s Schengen open-border zone, which allows free movement around rival hot spots such as France and Italy.

However, VisitBritain chief executive Sally Balcombe said Chinese visitors stay longer in Britain than in other European destinations and are high spenders.

“Every 22 additional Chinese visitors we attract support an additional job in tourism. We want to ensure we continue to compete effectively in this —the world’s biggest outbound market — and that we deliver growth and jobs across Britain,” she said.

“Digital engagement is one of our strengths and this campaign has been hugely effective in driving this with our potential Chinese visitors. We’re working closely with the industry and hope to see some of Britain’s most popular points of interest use these new Chinese names on their social media channels and websites to amplify that engagement.”

VisitBritain has started informing local tourist agencies of the new names and recommending that they consider putting up signs for Chinese tourists, following the lead of Hadrian’s Wall, the Roman wall across northern England. It is expected to adopt the name Wall of Eternity in Chinese, Mr Johnson said.

However, a name’s popularity in China may not guarantee a similar reception in the UK. In the bucolic county of Dorset, tourism executives were scratching their heads over the three leading suggestions for renaming the Cerne Abbas Giant, a huge chalk figure with a full male anatomy. Stylish Man With Strength, Giant Without A Stitch of Clothing and Big White Streaker were among the options.

“Well, they are certainly quite amusing,” said Mr James Maidment, an executive at Visit Dorset. “We heard the names only this morning. There are different takes on it locally. We’ll be getting feedback.”

Down at the Royal Oak pub in Cerne Abbas, a man reached by telephone said: “There are plenty of names for the Giant here, but you may not want to publish them. I’m not sure we need any more.” AGENCIES