LANGUAGE is a significant barrier when it comes to tourism, trade and relationships but Port Adelaide has broken down that barrier with its China Engagement Strategy – as has its newest partner.

Digital tourism platform UWAI has signed on as a Principal Partner for the 2018 season, and will also act as a Premier Partner of the club’s ‘Open To The World’ China Engagement Strategy.

UWAI is digital tourism infrastructure turning every smartphone into a local guide for Chinese tourists.

UWAI helps Australian businesses quickly and easily become “Chinese ready”, simply by providing their information to UWAI in English. UWAI takes care of the translation, syndication and promotion to Chinese visitors here and in China.

Launched in South Australia in 2017, UWAI removes the language barrier when it comes to Chinese tourism.

Chinese tourism contributed $10.2 billion to the Australian economy last year, and last week China became the largest source of tourists to Australia, with more than 1.3 million visitors to March 2018.

This is particularly important given more than 25% of the world’s population speaks a form of Chinese and many over 50% of Chinese tourists believe that language is the single largest barrier to them traveling to English speaking countries.

Port Adelaide Chief Executive Keith Thomas said the partnership made sense given the club’s commitment to expanding Australia’s relationship with its largest trading partner.
“Cross-cultural understanding is a key plank of our China Engagement Strategy,” MrThomas said.

“The Port Adelaide Football Club is helping drive business opportunities both in Australia and in China as well as providing opportunities to educate our Chinese friends about both the game of Australian Rules Football and Australian culture.

“UWAI shares our values relating to innovation and enhancing the prospects of Australian businesses in China, and our partnership will allow us to share experiences and knowledge to grow investment opportunities in both nations.”

UWAI has ten full-time employees in Adelaide and more than 2700 local businesses live on UWAI.

The company takes information from businesses in English and translates it into both Chinese languages, which is then available for visitors to read on their smartphones.

The company said Chinese travellers spent more than $10-billion in Australia last year and it predicted that could double if the language barrier wasn’t there.

It is now ready to expand nationally and then internationally, and co-founder Simon Henry said Port Adelaide would be an important partner on that journey in helping Chinese people feel more welcome in Australia.

“Port Adelaide is leading Australia with China cross-border business relationships, and UWAI is an ideal partner to continue this growth,” he said.

“It was an obvious partnership for UWAI given the exceptional match in culture, ethos, integrity and reach.

“Together we can focus on building relationships, business opportunities and trust between cultures.”

As part of its partnership, UWAI will receive branding rights to the ‘First Goal of the Game’ segment for Port Adelaide’s Shanghai match, along with the naming rights to The UWAI Australia Hub activation prior to the match.