As the going gets rough, this new article follows through from the first by Gaia Discovery on surviving COVID-19 through tourism resilience. Here, Mallika Naguran writes on ways the resort, hotel and tour operator sector can go from mere survival mode to reinvent and become creative in their businesses.
Launceston, 2 April 2020. It has been three months since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of today, more towns and cities globally have been in lockdown mode and millions of people with stay-at-home orders. This means that travel even within a local geographical area is restricted, adding a blow to domestic tourism.
But all is not lost, if one can still think ahead and differently even while struggling to survive. Here are some hints and tips to keep you, the business owner and manager, going.
1. Be in survival mode
Many businesses have shut down or closed temporarily and the revenue lost could mean the end of the road. Governments in a number of countries have tried to bail businesses with economic stimulus packages, tax incentives and even co-shared wages. The Australian government at the end of March, for instance, announced a whopping $130billion to prop up businesses with wide-ranging support schemes including staff wages ($1,500 per employee every two weeks), potentially benefiting up to six million Australians in the next six months. In Singapore, freelancers and the self-employed are entitled to receive $1,000 monthly for nine months as part of a $48billion stimulus package.
Sadly, there aren’t such supports present for businesses and employees in many countries. Policies are often not in line with what’s happening on the ground too. Albert Teo, founder of Borneo Ecotours, found that knee-jerk measures offered don’t work in light of how fast the circumstances have changed. “With lockdowns, it may be premature to provide incentives on reduced airfare when we should not be travelling, free space in shopping mall when we are all lockdown, tax free when there is no profit to be made. Timing is every thing,” said the award-winning operator in Sabah, Malaysia. Instead he said that such incentives would be very much needed in the near future during recovery stage. “Some strategies need to be fine tuned as situations become clearer,” he added.
“This is the time to pick up the phone to say, hello, I’m here and I think we can work together.”
To keep surviving, some businesses have applied for rental and loan repayment extensions, requested their staff to take paid leave in advance and slashed wages, short of firing them, so that everyone stays on the payroll somehow.
“Firing the staff just for cost cutting is not a solution. It is very difficult to train and retain,” said Major Satnam Singh, founder of Torna Holidays. “We shall continue with our existing manpower but with new targets,” he added.
Teo admits that retaining staff at a time when there is no business has been costly; as such, he and other directors have taken the biggest sacrifice “with 100% pay cut” to ensure the survival and sustainability of the company. “It is times like this that the company reinforces its brand and builds its goodwill and loyalty with both staff and customers,” he added.
Build staff morale, keep things upbeat by getting them upgraded. It is timely to encourage and guide staff to acquire new skills while in isolation or working at home, with a number of online training resources being offered by several organizations. The GST Council, for instance, will be offering online courses and webinars for members. The usual site-based courses within the suite of GSTC Sustainable Tourism Training Programme would now be available online as well. For businesses and destinations thinking of becoming more sustainable, now is the perfect time to explore and learn! Invest in learning if need be or tap into government grants and assistance, if any. Not everything on the internet comes free!
Wildlife encounters such as Asian Adventure’s Endangered Mammals of India tour at Gir National Park can still draw tourists once the COVID-19 pandemic is over. But that depends on what the tour operator does now, during the crisis, to keep potential customers interested and engaged. Picture courtesy of Sohil Makvana.
2. Strategise
New strategies are needed in building sustainable and resilient tourism businesses. Divesting is one. “At Asian Adventures India we have focussed on regular value investments where a percentage of our turnover is saved in an equity fund. When businesses suffer due to these situations the reserves come in handy to sail through turbulent waters,” said Mohit Aggarwal, founder of Asian Adventures that offers wildlife and birding tours, even species specific ones.
Teo’s company had earlier in 2019 set aside 10% of their staff incentives as a common fund that would be dipped into during difficult times to help staff in need. Mohit Aggarwal and Albert Teo are leaders in ecotourism in Asia and board members of the Asian Ecotourism Network, which promotes ecotourism standards to operators through networking, sharing and education.
Another way is to encourage purchases now for future consumption. White Manta, a Singapore-based dive company with liveaboard vessels, has been offering “worry-free bookings” i.e. discounts and flexibility in booking to its regular pool of customers.
For companies that need to reach out to a wider base of consumers and travellers, it is a good idea to partner sustainability-oriented media houses such as Gaia Discovery. Gaia Discovery’s Preferred Partner Programme, for instance, aims to bolster tour, resort and hotel operators in a win-win “pay now, travel later” scheme, with the opportunity to benefit local communities directly, support conservation such as tree planting, and funding staff wages (with cash flow). It will be reaching out to its global readers where every booking would enable conservation initiatives to help sustainable tourism operators survive during climate-related and coronavirus crises.
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3. Get involved & collaborate
Active and continued consultation with industry organisations and government bodies are essential if businesses need a lifeline that is relevant and sustainable. According to Albert Teo, there’s a mismatch between what has been offered or instructed, and what is actually needed in Malaysia. This is due to the government often not understanding how the industry works. “Moratorium to delay loan instalments and delayed interest payment by 3-6 months is only a temporary solution.”
So get involved. Call the council or government authority. Write letters to the government and to the newspapers. Petition as a business community. If you don’t get your voice out, how will you be heard?
Collaboration with like-minded operators in different countries is a way of laying the groundwork in seeking expansion when times get better. Building relationships with NGOs, industry associations and research institutes is also a good idea. How about inviting conservation societies to use your operational area as a research base where you can share scientific findings with your customers?
Build relations with environmental media. Take the time to explain what you do and your sustainability practices to the editor or writer of the media that you’ve always admired and wished would write about you. A few media companies such as Gaia Discovery would be open to forging partnerships as well, commercial or otherwise. This is the time to float ideas around, and to gather feedback on how you can better run your operations. This is the time to pick up the phone to say, hello, I’m here and I think we can work together.
Archana Brammall of Sweetbrew in Launceston, Tasmania reinvented the menu to have Indian dinner takeaways on top of the usual pastries, lunchtime meals and snacks. Picture: Gaia Discovery
4. Reinvent
Depending on the business type, it may be possible to operate differently, perhaps even to reinvent. Going online and selling products via the website instead of over the counter, offering takeaways, for instance. Temporarily.
Sweetbrew cafe in Launceston, Tasmania reinvented their menu to have Indian dinner takeaways on top of the usual over-the-counter pastries, lunchtime meals and snacks. This has helped create a new demand during the coronavirus restrictions imposed by Australia that prevents people from sitting at the cafe and having their coffee or meals. The counter had also been moved to the front of the store, serving the dual function of catching passerby’s attention while minimising customer contact with staff inside the cafe.
Reinvent - a strategy for routism resilience during COVID-19. The Taroko National Park in Taiwan is popular as a nature-based attraction with tour operators - how about creating a virtual tour of the venue to whet the traveller’s appetite? Picture: Gaia Discovery
For tourism businesses, it could also mean taking a look at 'low hanging fruits', said Aggarwal. These are “markets that will bounce back as soon as the coronavirus threat gets over.” He told Gaia Discovery that their systems “are being tweaked” to cater to such clients.
Also based in India, Torna Holidays that specialises in mountaineering and adventures intends to identify the sectors that open up quickly “but are safe to travel and keep alternative plans for rescue and evacuation ready,” said Singh. They are focussed on “the future of tourism segments - Adventure, Wellness, Eco and Educational Tourism”. Singh is using the downtime to plan for a new development - an adventure park that is both environmental and educational.
For operators whose website consist of static web pages, now is the time for a revamp. Visit a few competitors’ sites and see what works there; then apply what appeals and is relevant to your own business.
5. Get creative
Nobody knows when the pandemic will be well and truly over, and when the tourism and travel sector would recover. So now is the time to fight the battle of being invisible! Keep being visible, audible even… now is the time to keep in touch with customers. A simple letter explaining your circumstances and how you’d like to maintain connection goes a long way.
A good way of being visible is to see the Internet medium as not just a passive platform. Look at it as a content generator and a customer engagement platform. For instance, there could be greater online topics of interest; try telling stories of unique tour experiences and wild animal encounters. Of struggles, failures and persistence in maintaining conservation through tourism. Everybody loves listening to stories, so even a simple podcast would do!
Photographs will go a long way to garner attention, and so will videos. Efforts into putting together a good and short video would be most appreciated with bored and stranded wanderers in their quarantine spots. Never underestimate the power of storytelling. Years later, you might just get a visitor turning up at your resort because of a story you had narrated from the heart during your struggles in COVID-19 downtime.
Skift.com outlined a few operators’ online initiatives that keep experiences going but without the usual personal contact. GetYourGuide, for instance, started The World at Home last week. There, it offers free Facebook livestreams that are put together by experts and professionals. A Roman cooking class and Berlin street art class are on the programme.
Museums are also offering virtual tours. Google Arts & Culture teamed up with over 2500 museums and galleries around the world to deliver virtual tours and online exhibits.
So here’s what I think are ways one can become more resilient and sustainable in the tourism business:
Be in survival mode - don’t give up
Strategise, strategise, strategise
Get involved and collaborate with different parties
Reinvent your business
Get creative with storytelling, if not, technology
“Everyone is bunkering down in survival mode. So am I, as I plan for strategies for recovery,” said Teo. Are you?
Share with us what you are doing to keep your business afloat or who you’d like to partner with ideally. Your sharing and contact details left in the comment box below could open up new possibilities!