Sauditransport '82 — Arabic signs best
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WITH reference to your articles concerning Saudi Transport '82 — CM February 27 and March 6 — I feel that there are some discrepancies in your report.
Firstly, the Saudi Transport '82 exhibition started exactly on time (Sunday, February 21) and not 72 hours late. Secondly, as pointed out by your "special correspondent." many of the show visitors were English speaking. However, he fails to point out that this was largely due to the high number of visitors who were actually British people working for firms such as British Aerospace in Saudi, ie they were visiting the show for recreational purposes.
Although the majority of Saudi businessmen speak a little English, the people who make the actual decision to buy are the Saudis. Thus, in accordance with advice received from the show organisers, Leyland Bus did in fact have display panels only in Arabic. The videos and literature on the stand, however, were available both in Arabic and English.
Rather than this being a handicap (as suggested by your correspondent), we found that the Saudis were very impressed with the trouble we had taken to prepare everything in Arabic and it certainly made a major contribution to our successful business dealings in the country. R. L. ORCHARD Advertising & Sales Promotion Manager RLO/pa Leyland Vehicles Preston Lancashire