Business: English Skills
ビジネスチャンスを活かす英語力UPのために
12月から隔月でB項を担当致します、中村です。これからよろしくおねがいします。
さて今回は巷でもいまだ猛威を振るっているコロナウイルスによる民泊サービスビジネスの変遷に関しての記事を抜粋し、経済状況等を言い表す典型的な英文表現を主にピックアップして解説していきます。
After taking a severe hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, firms involved in the sharing economy are exploring new opportunities — looking to offer services that help people avoid in-person contact with others, so lowering the risk of contracting the virus.
Their small workforces and limited equipment and facilities have allowed such companies to exercise flexibility in their efforts to survive, according to industry observers.
Firms that offer space-sharing services have been particularly hard hit by the virus crisis.
U.S. private accommodation marketplace Airbnb Inc. had been popular among foreign tourists wanting to find minpaku private lodging in Japan, and had anticipated high demand during the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.
But the pandemic, which caused the quadrennial sporting event to be postponed to 2021, almost completely wiped out demand from foreign visitors.
Space Market Inc., a service for renting conference rooms and other spaces, saw demand for events and parties plummet. The total value of deals it handled in the April to June quarter, which partially coincided with a government-declared state of emergency over the virus, shrank 70% from the quarterly peak marked in October to December of 2019.
The spread of the virus has prompted property owners to renovate rooms previously used for lodging into offices for teleworking, and make houses away from urban areas available for extended stays.
Airbnb and Space Market have redesigned their websites so customers can easily find places where they can avoid close contact with others. The two firms also have been taking thorough measures to keep rented spaces virus-free.
Thanks to such efforts, Airbnb saw demand from domestic users surge by 78% year on year in the second week of June, an official from the company said.
Vocabularies（語彙）：
firms: (firm) 企業
accommodation: 宿泊施設
quadrennial: 4年ごとの
lodging: 宿泊、下泊
coincide: 同時に起きる
prompted: (prompt) 促す
Expressions（表現）：
1. ～lowering the risk of contracting the virus.
「ウイルスと契約するリスクを低くする」と訳してしまいそうですが、contractには病気になるという意味もあります。なので「ウイルスに感染するリスクを低減する」が好ましい訳になるでしょう。
2. ～wiped out demand from foreign visitors.
Wiped out で文字通り一掃するという意味になりますねので、今回の文脈でいうと「4年に一度のスポーツイベントを2021年に延期せざるを得なかった原因でもあるパンデミックにより外国人旅行客の需要を一掃してしまった。」といった感じで訳します。
3. … plummet. / … shrank 70% from …/ … surge by 78%.
左から順に「急落する」「7割に落ちる」「78％上昇する」と訳しますが、どれも経済や株価の状況をあらわす定番の表現です。そのほかにも”skyrocketing 急騰する。”,”drop 落ちる。”などもよく使われる定番表現としてあります。
出典：Firms in Japan’s sharing economy turn virus crisis into opportunity, Nov. 17. 2020