Vox Group Launches AI-Powered Live Translation for Group Tours
Rome, Italy, September 14, 2026 / TRAVELINDEX / Vox Group, a guiding technology company operating in more than 150 countries, today launched a significantly expanded version of Vox Aura. First introduced at WTM London in 2025 as a live translation device, Aura is now an AI-powered smart transmitter.
Aura was built to solve one problem: language. One guide, speaking once, understood by every guest on the tour. Over the past year, working alongside the operators and guides who use it, Vox found that was only the starting point.
“Operators have called Aura “a game changer”, and the reason is simple. One guide speaks once, and every guest receives a tour made for them in their own language, run from a single app. There is no extra kit to hand out and collect, and nobody is left out of the story. It gives guides more to work with and operators more to sell.” Fabio Primerano, Chief Executive Officer, Vox Group
What they asked for changed the product. Guides wanted the unexpected question covered, the obscure detail they could not be expected to carry. Hosts, who are not always trained guides, wanted the same support throughout the tour. Operators wanted one tour that could hold a mixed group together.
Aura now supports live simultaneous translation in up to four languages at once, drawn from a library that has grown from 50 languages to 200. Guests need nothing at all to take part: no smartphone, no download, no roaming fees and no separate interpreter. The audio reaches them over the same Vox radio link operators have relied on for 25 years, in more than 150 countries, while the guide runs everything from a single device.
One tour, built for every guest
Aura also lets one tour work for everyone on it. Multiple channels run at the same time, each tailored to the listener, whether that is the standard commentary, a historical deep-dive, a children’s version or a translated feed. The same departure now suits a family, a specialist and a first-time visitor without the guide repeating themselves.
Accessibility is part of the same principle. For guests who are deaf or hard of hearing, live subtitles can be sent to their own phone as the guide speaks, so they follow the tour with the group rather than reading a summary afterwards. There is no extra equipment to hand out or manage, and nothing that marks a guest out as needing it.
At the heart of it is Aura’s AI companion, built to support the guide rather than speak for them. Verified information is there the moment a guest asks something off the beaten track, and local context, from place names to local sayings, is on hand for commentary that feels natural. When there is a gap to fill on a long transfer, the guide can call up a story or a quiz to keep the group with them.
Crucially, Aura draws on operator-approved content and verified sources rather than the open internet, so operators decide what their guests hear.
For operators, the update addresses a long-standing operational challenge: a single departure can now carry visitors who would previously have needed splitting into separate language groups, with the tour adapting to each guest as it runs.
“Twenty-five years ago, we put a radio into a guide’s hand so that every guest could hear them. That principle has not changed. Aura begins with the guide and stays with the guide. What has changed is how much it can carry for them: two hundred languages, a personal channel for every listener, and answers on hand the moment a guest asks something nobody saw coming.” Elio Epifani, Founder, Vox Group
Vox customers are vast and include tour operators, cruise lines, shore excursion providers, sightseeing providers and destination marketing organisations.
