Mansions team up with Bryant’s U.S.-China Institute

NEWPORT and SMITHFIELD – Chinese-speaking tourists visiting the Newport Mansions are among those who will benefit from a new collaboration between The Preservation Society of Newport County and the U.S.-China Institute at Bryant University.
“Travel and tourism in Rhode Island is a $4.7-billion industry,” Denise Schwerin, assistant director for business services at the U.S.-China Institute, said in a statement today. “Creative partnerships like the one with The Preservation Society of Newport County will help ensure that Rhode Island is a welcoming destination for the increasingly mobile Chinese tourist.”
The accord will be signed this Friday by Bryant President Ronald K. Machtley and Preservation Society CEO and Executive Director Trudy Coxe, at the Chinese Tea House on the Marble House grounds.
It calls for the U.S.-China Institute to translate the Preservation Society’s printed tour scripts from English into Mandarin. Periodically, the institute also will provide a Mandarin-speaking guide for Chinese tour groups visiting the society’s largest properties.
“We are thrilled to have this assistance from the U.S.-China Institute,” Coxe said in a statement today.
“We currently offer printed tour scripts in several languages. With Chinese-speaking tourists making up a large and growing segment of [the] Newport Mansions’ visitors, the ability to offer them tours in their own language will enhance their experience and make the mansions more attractive as a destination.”
Bryant University is a business, liberal arts and technology school with more than 3,600 undergraduate and graduate students. The U.S.-China Institute at Bryant was established in 2005 to forge academic, business and cultural partnerships between the university and other institutions and enhance business and cultural exchanges between China and New England. To learn more, visit www.bryant.edu.
The Preservation Society of Newport County – a nonprofit educational organization accredited by the American Association of Museums – is one of the nation’s largest private custodians of National Historic Landmarks. Its 11 historic properties include seven designated National Historic Landmarks and span more than 250 years. For more information, visit www.NewportMansions.org.