Sydney Airport Introduces Hindi at Wayfinding Kiosks

Sydney Airport has introduced Hindi at its wayfinding kiosks, which will help Indians get details related to the right directions, flight-related updates and information regarding shops, cafes or other facilities, in the Indian language.  

Hindi has been introduced in the Australian wayfinding system keeping in mind the growing number of Indian nationals travelling to the country.  

Sydney Airport’s international terminal, Terminal 1, has added Hindi and Arabic at its 17 wayfinding kiosks, according to the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). With the addition of these languages, the total number of languages available at the  kiosks has become nine. The other languages being offered at the kiosks are English, French, German, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Spanish. 

Sydney Airport says that the step to introduce Hindi and Arabic was taken to cater to the growth of tourism markets of India and the Middle East. It is also an attempt to enhance the airport experience for all passengers through the use of technology, the report added. 

“We’re pleased to add Hindi and Arabic to the list of available languages. We continue to see strong visitor numbers from India and through the Middle East, with 16.5 per cent year-to-date growth from India,” Sydney Airport CEO  Geoff Culbert was quoted as saying in the report. 

“This increasing number of visitors contributes significantly to tourism, economic growth and job creation in New South Wales,” he added. 

Culbert said that the information available in various languages will make things easier for the travelers. 

“Our multi-lingual wayfinding kiosks play an important role in making travelers from around the world feel welcome here in Sydney,” he said. 

Citing Census 2016 data, SBS reported that India is one of the top five sources of immigrants in Australia. Data also shows that Hindi-speaking population has been increasing significantly in the last five years in the country. 

Hindi comes among the top 10 languages spoken in Australia. There are 159,652 Hindi speakers in Australia, which makes Hindi the top Indian language spoken at home in Australia, according to latest census data. 

Hindi also continues to remain the most widely spoken Indian language in the United States, followed closely by Gujarati and Telugu, according to recent American Community Data released by the U.S. Census Bureau.