National and local holidays are important to all of us.
We plan long weekends away around them and even take holiday (called bridging holiday), if HR permits it, so that we can fully maximise our time off and makes the most of the ‘free’ holiday the government gives us!
But have you ever questioned whether people abroad think in the same way and whether they receive the same holidays as we do?
If you conduct business abroad or carry out market research across international markets, it’s important to know when people will be working.
It seems obvious, but it’s easy to forget to check how holidays might impact the effectiveness of a market research study when you have a multitude of other details to consider.
While several countries share national holidays like Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, many have their own national holidays that are specific to their own rich histories and cultures.
Most countries also have local holidays, which only affect one or more particular state at any given time, but if you want to conduct research in a particular local area, they are worth taking into account.
For example, while Germany has 8 national holidays and 8 local holidays affecting only various states, the Muslim religion is practiced by a large majority in Saudi Arabia, which means that most people celebrate Ramadan during July and August, which involves fasting in daylight hours.
Working hours might well change during this time or services could be reduced to enable people to observe this religious festival.
The Language Factory is a translation agency working for companies all over the world.
As market research translation specialists, they are often in the position of telling their clients that translating for or fielding in a particular market could be hindered by local of national holidays.
With that in mind, they’ve put together an interactive infographic detailing the national and local holidays for 2016.
The infographic shows what day of the week the holiday will fall on next year along with information about the holiday itself and whether a bridging holiday is likely to be taken by those people that celebrate it.
This should give you an indication of when services are likely to be reduced and when it might be more difficult to conduct market research in these countries.
*The Language Factory is a UK based translation agency that specialises in market research translation.
Find more information on www.thelanguagefactory.co.uk .
