Sound's Natural's Record Breaking Audio Tour

One of Sounds Natural's most popular audio tours is also a record breaker, thought to be the most translated audio tour in the world. The tour of Royal Yacht Britannia, produced by ex-BBC audio expert Ken Jackson, has now been translated into an unprecedented 30 different languages, with recent additions to the list including Brazilian, Turkish, Thai, Cantonese, Romanian, Gaelic, Welsh and Punjabi.

The Royal Yacht Britannia was formerly the UK Queen's "floating palace" serving as a residence for state occasions, official receptions, honeymoons and holidays. When it reached the end of its service it was berthed at the Port of Leith in Edinburgh where it became one of the country's most popular tourist attractions. The audio tour explains to visitors what they are seeing as they move around the ship, giving fascinating facts and important background information. Highlights of the tour include the State Dining Room, the Queen's bedroom, the crew's quarters, the engine room and even the bedroom where Charles and Diana spent their honeymoon! The tour features imaginative touches such as authentic and evocative sound effects as the visitors enter the bridge.

In addition to the foreign language versions of the audio tour, there are four English versions: main, children's, basic language and one for the visually impaired. There is also a British Sign Language version of the tour which hearing-impaired visitors can enjoy via a hand-held tablet.

The audio tour is included in the ticket price and so all guests can enjoy it. One reviewer on trip advisor singled out the audio tour for special commendation, entitling his report "A good audio tour", and going on to write "The entrance fee includes a very interesting audio tour. It makes a change to not see people wandering aimlessly around not knowing what they are looking at simply because they have not wanted to pay extra for the audio". The audio tours are easy to access. Before boarding, all visitors are offered an audio wand. They simply select the relevant number on the keypad that corresponds to their preferred language and away they go! Sounds Natural is a small Galloway audio studio, using mostly Galloway based voices, who are native speakers, but residents of Dumfries and Galloway. Indeed, as proud natives of Dumfries and Galloway it's our proud boast that all but four or five of the tours have been voiced, or part-voiced by residents of our own fair county! Sounds Natural has a number of projects in the pipe-line, and the scope and subject matter of our catalogue is so varied it will be fascinating to see if we break any more records. It is not inconceivable so watch this space!

Below is the most up to date list of languages that this audio tour is available in:

 

And recently Romanian, Gaelic and Welsh

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