Rotana invests AED2.5mn into website translation

Rotana Middle East and Africa announced that guests in key markets will now be able to access information on the company’s official website rotana.com in five languages (in addition to English), in a move that is expected to greatly further Rotana’s international reach.

The group has invested AED2.5million (US $680,000) on the system, after witnessing 49% occupancy growth in the Middle East region in 2012. Arabic was said to be the natural choice, along with four other languages, Russian, Spanish, German and Chinese based on Rotana’s key source markets.

“The choice of languages that rotana.com is now offered in is driven by our existing clientele and key growth markets. An Arabic-enabled site allows us to better serve our home market in the GCC and the wider Arab region and is key to our growth strategy in GCC, where we have 35 properties in operation and another 22 in the pipeline,” said Omer Kaddouri, executive vice president and COO of Rotana.

“Russian and German were two other languages that warranted translation as Russia, the CIS markets and Germany are important source markets. Moreover, with Chinese speakers making up 14% of the world’s population and Spanish speakers at close to 6%, these two languages offered us the greatest ROI in terms of penetration into important growth markets,” Kaddouri continued.

Native speakers of these five languages will now be able to browse information on Rotana’s extensive hotel portfolio, destination tips on places where Rotana operates, in addition to booking directly online.

“Today, more people spend time researching the best hotel deals online and make their room bookings independently. Having the ability to browse information in their native language is imperative to making a purchase decision,” added Kaddouri. “Non-English speaking guests can now also avail of special online booking rates and packages and this will translate into more business for individual hotels. Travel agents in key markets will also have a lot more information readily available to them to push our hospitality products.”

The translation of the Rotana website is yet another major initiative aimed at growing market share through boosting accessibility and convenience. Rotana recently launched a mobile app that allows guests to browse and book on the go through their smartphones, as well as a “click-to-call” live customer service accessible over WiFi or 3G.