Mandarin Chinese, I believe. It is for the benefit of the many, many visitors to the shops there who largely visit from Oxford.Announcements made at Bicester are made in English and another language from what I heard the other day. I presume it is Chinese.
What is the history behind the extra announcements for Bicester Village?
Mandarin Chinese, I believe. It is for the benefit of the many, many visitors to the shops there who largely visit from Oxford.
OK, my few uses of the Oxford-Marylebone service suggested that visitors to Oxford 'had to do' Bicester as well, but that was admittedly a small sample.Bicester Village is a major attraction for Chinese with around half of Chinese visitors to the UK visiting it. In my experience they don't mainly come from Oxford, but change there from London.
I would love to know just how an outlet shopping centre (not really any different from the other outlet shopping centres) ended up on the tourist trail like that.
The Chinese have a habit of following the recommendations of other Chinese to a bizarre degree. See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-37820663#:~:text=Chinese tourists are descending on,gardens and against parked cars. As a result,places can go viral.. Bicester Village however has managed to keep itself popular with its image and focus on products the Chinese adore.
I'd hate to be a resident in such an area if coach tours kept stopping off. Would get awfully irritating after the novelty had worn off.To be fair I've been on guided tour holidays where they took you round a "typical residential area" and the likes. I've always found that a bit uncomfortable, to be honest - by all means drive the coach down there, but stopping and wandering round seems a bit off.
Presumably Bicester Village spend a lot of money on advertising in places where rich Chinese people who holiday in Europe will see it.I would love to know just how an outlet shopping centre (not really any different from the other outlet shopping centres) ended up on the tourist trail like that.
Bicester Village is nothing to do with the town of Bicester, it's a self contained retail "experience" outside the main town centre. Bicester Village is effectively a brand name, and such a good one that the station was renamed after it...The three languages that are used on these automated announcements are as follows:
• English
• Chinese Mandarin
• Arabic
So i am guessing that those from Arabic countries (probably the six rich Gulf State ones like, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, etc) are probably the second largest group of visitors after those from China (who are by the far the largest group of visitors there).
I have no idea why they want to come to the UK and waste their time travelling to another town to go shopping. There is a lot of better things to do. But each to their own i suppose. I imagine it must be promoted in China. It is probably on all the UK tourist books they have in China.
Another thing i find strange is why the Bicester Village shopping place is called that when it is located in a town rather than a village. Bicester is a town and always has been so i do not know why they decided to name the shopping place that.
First Great Western never had automated announcements in any other language when they served the station (back when it was much more sensibly named as Bicester Town instead) so i think Chiltern Railways introduced these when the new line opened. It certainly makes it interesting hearing announcements in other languages. I think the Eurostar (and of course all of Wales as well) is the only other place this happens.
It’s Arabic, accurate according to my colleagueI believe there is another language too played at the station, as well as Mandarin. Possibly Hindi or Arabic but I’m not 100% certain.
Bicester Village is nothing to do with the town of Bicester, it's a self contained retail "experience" outside the main town centre. Bicester Village is effectively a brand name, and such a good one that the station was renamed after it...
It's a bit bizarre, but really successful and brilliant for Chiltern as it provides lots of off peak business!
It is discounted designer gear all in one place, that is the attraction. Oxford certainly isn't what I would call a shopping "destination" even with the new Westgate.I'm still mystified by the attraction of Bicester Village. If they want to go to Oxford/London, surely there's enough shops providing what they want there without needing to stop at Bicester too.
I wonder what extra languages they should put on the Metrolink when arriving at The Trafford Centre or Liverpool ONE etc...
Perhaps preempting the large-scale house building in the town a bit too early.Bicester I find a bit of an odd place these days. It used to be a fairly quaint market town, a Newport Pagnell sort of place, but then they added the big Sainsbury's and cinema complex and multi-storey car park which are on a different scale and don't seem to fit.
There used to be signs in Japanese at Oxenholme (and maybe Windermere, though I'm not sure of this). Are they still there? Even more bizarrely, some of the signposts on the Brontë Way up on the moors around Haworth are in English and Japanese.
Perhaps preempting the large-scale house building in the town a bit too early.
Quite! All in neat, clean and tidy surroundings - all, in my opinion, a bit 'Disneyesque' (if that's a word?).It is discounted designer gear all in one place, that is the attraction. Oxford certainly isn't what I would call a shopping "destination" even with the new Westgate.
Perhaps preempting the large-scale house building in the town a bit too early.
https://www.tbvsc.com/bicester-village/en/services/instant-tax-refund
An easy to access VAT refund system for non-EU shoppers can be a great attraction.
Presumably because the foreign visitors reclaiming their VAT will also be spending lots of money on hotels, restaurants etcMust admit I do not understand why we allow such refunds. They are luxury goods, and if we feel luxury goods should be taxed, they should be taxed for everyone.