Vienna Tourism language barrier - Russian and Chinese on the increase
Vienna is popular with Chinese and Russian, but language skills are a problem
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Lack of Russian speakers in the Viennese tourism industry |
Vienna (pte031/07.05.2013/13:51) Vienna is a destination now highly popular with Chinese and Russian tourists. However, there is a distinct lack of people in the tourism branch with the required language skills.
The hotel union is now calling for more work permits to be given to Chinese natives. Russian is still being taught in some Viennese high-schools, but it isn't the case for Mandarin.
Some 630,000 Russian tourists visited the Austrian capital last year. There was an increase of 40 percent in tourists from China compared to last year (200,000).
Michaela Reitterer of the hotel union said: "The issue is not that Austrians speak Chinese, but that working permits are issue to Chinese nationals. When the situation really does become problematic, we need to be prepared and not just limp behind it all."
Reitterer said that the few Austrians that do speak Chinese prefer jobs as highly paid specialists in the industry.
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