Overseas translation service launches for UK travellers
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A new translation service has been launched for British travellers trying to overcome the language barrier while on holiday. The 24/7 service, named Interpreter Live, aims to help travellers when they are abroad in emergency situations, legal matters or simply just to check their taxi is heading in the right direction. Former bomb disposable officer Lee Mears set up the company after facing the problems during his own travels. “After the army I ran motorbike holidays and found there was a language barrier in several countries,” Mears explained to Travel Daily. “Some holidaymakers think a translator is covered in their travel insurance but that is not the case, although Interpreter Live is like an insurance in that it offers a piece of mind. It’s been running for two months and the response has been positive, particularly in the corporate market”. The service is commissionable to travel agents and can be used as an add-on sale, although it will not be so obviously needed in the generally English-speaking resorts across Europe. Instead the service targets self-drivers across Europe, gap year travellers and the rising number of Brits that head off to increasingly remote or less-tourist areas such as the Middle East, South America or Far East. It already has 200 languages available thanks to Mears’s use of established interpreter companies, which not only saves him office space and teething problems but ensures the translators are of a high standard. Meanwhile on the topic of call costs, a notorious gripe with British travellers, Mears said he had worked hard to find the cheapest option for users. “We have to keep the cost as low as possible or it won’t work,” he said. “You cannot ring a UK freephone number abroad so we use a normal UK landline as a dial in, which is the cheapest option. Of course this means a service provider roaming rate so it’s up to the individual to weigh up the cost of the call against its necessity. Cost-wise – it is the lowest it can be currently”. Clients can call the number using a
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