Guangzhou tourist touchscreens become polyglots

Guangzhou has upgraded more than 200 of its visitor self-service touchscreens located in hotels, commercial areas and scenic spots, according to an announcement made by the city's tourism bureau on Dec 15.  

The new touchscreens provide key information about the city to tourists and offer services in as many as 12 languages, as well as being fitted with a facility allowing visitors to print their boarding passes for flights.

The original touchscreens only offered two language services, namely English and Chinese, but the upgraded ones add French, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Arabian, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Thai. This new feature will make life a lot easier for overseas visitors to Guangzhou by breaking an often troublesome language barrier.

Overseas visitors use a self-service touchscreen to learn more about Guangzhou and its tourism services. [Photo provided to govt.chinadaily.com.cn]

"The self-service systems in other Chinese cities are installed with six languages at most," said a spokesperson for Guangzhou's tourism bureau. "Our 12-language system is the most comprehensive in China, meeting the needs of the vast majority of foreign tourists."

The upgraded system can even provide corresponding information according to which language the tourist chooses. For example, those that choose Russian might get pointed towards Russian festival activity information.

Tourists are also able to find comprehensive information about airline services, restaurants, accommodation, public transport, car rental, sightseeing, shopping, and complaints hotlines via the upgraded touch screens.

Guangzhou has invested heavily in its tourism industry in recent years and has established a stable service platform for visitors with tourist information centers dotted across the city. Also available at the information centers are free mobile phone charging services, rental umbrellas and emergency telephones, as well as the touchscreens.