Written by: Moazzam Ali Khan Former Chairman Pakistan Hotel Association
The COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis without a modern equivalence. The lack of precedent of uncertainty, the lives of each of us have impacted across the world. The economic experts explain why the public and private sectors had already started getting the strains way before the World Health Organization declared on March 11, 2020, this alarming situation as PANDEMIC.
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The actions taken by the respective governments, public sector, and the private sector will set a foundation for any such eventualities in the future and will at the same time boost many of these stakeholders to recover and eventually sustain the oncoming growth process.
This pandemic will give more opportunities as many of world-renowned financial companies predict new changed markets for businesses will surface up for sectors of trade and business, including tourism.
Soon with the curative process of COVID-19, the commercial aviation industry will have to resume its business with the conditions to adhere to stricter rules and travel restrictions enforced by almost all the countries. There is a possibility of increased fares/ tariff for all the commercial aviation operators, to circumvent the imposed restrictions of social distancing, sanitization of all areas of operation including the aircraft. Coming back 100% normalcy will take a while, perhaps not before the end of the year 2020 or it may go even beyond this time frame.
The entire world is currently engaged in bringing their respective country back to normalcy, for which all efforts are being implemented. The developed countries have also extended soft interest loans, to all the small, medium, and big size business houses so that they can sustain themselves for the business activities and keep their employees on their payroll.
Globally a lot is happening to recover the lost economy, every country is trying its best to get back on the track, on the side the geo-political of the world order is also changing, keeping in view the past decades where China was richer and developing its internal markets and finding ways and mean to maintain the cost to end-user and compete for the international markets, is again on its move to recover and sustain its growth.
Even before the COVID – 19 pandemic, globalization was under a great dilemma, open trade was dominating the world economy for decades which was eventually damaged by the Sino-American trade war, now it is being crushed by the lockdowns, and sealed borders.
A lot needs to be understood about this devastating situation and be very proactive in responding to the recovery process.
The 5G technology is again a big controversy, especially the Huawei versus rest of the world, but experts are speculating this mindset will change soon as the Chinees technology is far superior having end to end capabilities including chipsets, devices, cloud service, and network. It has unbelievable features, which can change the world especially in the advancement of science and technological achievements. This 5G technology can work as a driving force in the global economic recovery process.
The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next, knowingly, Pakistan needs to go a long way to organize the recovery process, but nothing is impossible if it is done with conviction.
All the interlinked stakeholders involved in the recovery and growth of the Tourism industry, vis-a’-vis Commercial Aviation, Hotels and Tours Operators need to develop their Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and swiftly implement the same for the success of their growth and for sustaining the ongoing business. These SOPs will define their standards under the prevailing condition for e.g cleaning and sanitizing all public areas, restaurants, public toilets, guest rooms, use of mask and gloves by the operational staff, etc. The same needs to be evolved and implemented by all the stakeholders of the Tourism industry.
Due to the current deteriorating situation of Pakistan’s economy, more so due to the effect of COVID-19, all stakeholders more specifically from the Tourism industry needs to promote Pakistan in a better way, perhaps highlighting their advertising with the care and importance for disinfecting all the areas of Hotel, rooms, restaurants, etc. A lot of marketing efforts will be needed to tap international tourists.
With China’s lockdown over, travel has already restarted. China’s experience as consumer confidence in travel growth can help businesses in other parts of the world will surely navigate the next level of normalcy. In my opinion, this was a very swift, smart, and robust initiative taken by China, which soon will be witnessed by all of us. It will be a source of competitive agility and growth. I am sure China’s experience can shed light on what other countries can do, especially Pakistan being a close ally of China can immensely benefit their experience.
At present, travel is entirely domestic, international borders are closed. Like other countries, China has also imposed 14 days quarantine for international travelers (either in-home or in government facilities), for every person coming from overseas. The international flights have been capped at one a week per airline and country, more than a 90 % drop in seat capacity from a pre-crisis level. Hotel occupancy and domestic flight capacity are growing gradually. The travelers are still little cautious but gaining confidence and very soon they will make a breakthrough.
The travelers’ demographic and the overall economic spending pattern is also being monitored by the concerned department to review for future actions. For your information, the overall spending is not more than CNY 10,000 at an average.
The entire infrastructure of the tourism industry globally has incurred incalculable damage from the COVID-19 pandemic, but on a positive note, in my opinion, it has provided us an opportunity to radically rethink, the tourism hard drive needs to be rebooted.
I have been raising my voice for the efforts being taken by our government, but unfortunately, nothing is being surfaced so far, but we need to wake them up time and again, constantly. THIS IS AGAIN A GOOD TIME FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO COME FORWARD WITH THEIR CONCRETE PLAN TO COMBAT THIS POST PANDEMIC AND SAVE THIS MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY.
Now the role of the private sector Hotel and Tour operators are equally important for their share in the process of the recovery of the business, a few recommendations for their review as below:
- Pricing your product will be a prime ingredient of your business, not very exorbitantly high nor very low, the margin of profit to be evaluated fairly.
- Group bookings mean volume, to be given preferential pricing.
- Innovative marketing strategies to be activated to attract tourists, business travelers, and others. All gloomy marketing promotions to be encouraged for implementation. Not every trick and marketing tactic will work it need constant monitoring. But the marketing team to be encouraged to make mistakes. Find new solutions to diversify the source market. The marketing should not forget to tap the domestic in and out bond travelers.
- The consumer has changed their behavior and lifestyle due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they have become very sensitive for hygiene/sanitizing and social distancing, hence due cognizance to be taken. Hence it is recommended, a proper advertising campaign is initiated to gain the confidence of the product and the available protective services.
Tourism is a highly labor-intense industry, in Pakistan and globally. It provides huge job opportunities for the masses, to revive this industry, it is pertinent that the government should support businesses morally and initiate the reforms as recommended time and again for a prosperous PAKISTAN.
