New year, new hopes for post-pandemic travel recovery, but infection surges and continued travel restrictions have provided little relief for many travel agents across Asia. In this three-part series, we find out how the travel agent community in key Asian markets are coping.

THAILAND
A second wave of Covid-19 infections in Thailand has caused travel movement to plunge ahead of the New Year break, smashing hopes of a business uplift.

As Covid-19 infections doubled from about 5,000 cases for the whole of 2020 to more than 10,000 by mid-January 2021, approximately 60 per cent of 10,000 registered travel operators in the country had to hibernate their business while 20 per cent threw in the towel.

Vichit Prakobgosol, president, Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA), told TTG Asia that the remaining 20 per cent could continue to face calamity throughout 2021 and that the outbound sector would be the most vulnerable.

It is estimated that one third of workforce in Thailand’s travel agency community – or 150,000 people – have lost their jobs.

“There’s still no future and no hope for the first and the second quarter this year,” said Vichit.

Although most travel agencies have moved to domestic travel or non-travel-related business alongside cost-cutting measures such as retrenchment and releasing office space, efforts have not been enough to cover expenses.

InSpirit Holidays has reduced its headcount and asked remaining staff to work from home. However, managing director Den Mahawongsanunt said the company is not out of the woods. It is now crafting and selling premium packages to target high-spending Thai residents who are unable to travel overseas.

Glory Travel (Thailand) has chosen to trim expenses by relocating the office from a rented space to the home of owner Suthiphong Pheunphiphop.

While the government has various financial packages to aid hotels, restaurants, tourist guides and shop owners, travel agency owners have been left out of the programmes.

To save businesses and staff, Vichit has called for further government assistance, particularly for job creation. Easier access to financial assistance is also critical for small-and-medium-sized agencies. – Suchat Sritama

MALAYSIA
Malaysia’s tourism sector is estimated to have lost more than RM100 billion last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic and border closures since March 18, 2020.

Uzaidi Udanis, president, Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association (MITA), expects many tourism players to not “survive beyond the first quarter of this year, as their businesses are already haemorrhaging”.

Dayangti Transport & Tours director, S Jayakumar, told TTG Asia that his business has been “suffering ever since the government closed the border in March 2020”.

The agency is now dependent on domestic business, but it accounts for only 10 per cent of what it used to make from international customers.

“We have had no choice but to downsize, with more than half the workforce retrenched. With business being so bad, we are also considering selling some of our tour buses and vans,” said Jayakumar.

On the upside, Jayakumar has turned his passion for biking into a business – he now conducts biking tours around Malaysia. To keep staff motivated, he has kept pay cuts at bay and allowed for more flexibility within the organisation due to reduced workloads.

“As long as their work is done, we allow them to come into the office when they please, and take leave whenever they want,” he said.

Business has also been bad for Asian Overland Services Tours & Travel, one of the most prominent travel agencies in Malaysia. Managing directorYap Sook Ling said: “But we are trying our best. We keep staff motivated by encouraging them to go for training and to pick up new skills. We also keep them busy in the office by giving them a variety of assignments.”

Malaysia’s tourism industry is supported by government-issued wage and electricity subsidies, as well as targeted loan moratoriums.

The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) has also rolled out initiatives such as exemption of licence fees for tour operators and guides, discounts and deferment of compounds for all tour operators and guides, and an online platform, www.malaysia.travel, for industry players to promote their products and services for free, plus other incentives to help tourism players survive.

MITA’s Uzaidi said: “The government has acknowledged the importance of the travel industry and has introduced numerous incentives and programmes to assist the industry. However, we cannot simply depend on the government to see us through this. We have encouraged our members to be resourceful and to leverage on networking opportunities with their peers.

“On our part, we have conducted various programmes to help members through these challenging times. For example, MITA worked closely with Tourism Productivity Nexus to provide online one-to-one consultation services to provide personalised advice and implementable recommendations in the areas of finance, business operations and industry structure to small and medium sized tourism related enterprises.

“We also helped members to explore new business opportunities and new business models as this new norm will bring about a shift in tourism practices.”

One of the changes in tourism, according to Uzaidi, is group tours falling out of favour, which will require tour bus operators and retailers to adapt to the new reality.

He also urged members to innovate their products to cater to the domestic market while readying for the reopening of international borders.

“We have to learn to live with Covid-19 and look at best practices on how to open up safely, such as what Dubai has done,” said Uzaidi.

Besides the support schemes, it is vital for the government to continue talks with foreign counterparts to allow cross-border travel in a safe manner should the country desire a real recovery. – S Puvaneswary