Source: Taiwan Strait Network
The outbreak of the new coronavirus in Taiwan has once again impacted the tourism industry, which was already showing signs of recovery. Li Qiyue, spokesperson of the Travel Industry Quality Assurance Association, pointed out in an interview that more than half of the talent in the tourism industry was lost during the epidemic. The "talent vacuum" may break the service chain, and the resulting problems will also impact the tourism industry after the reversal. Therefore, the public It is a top priority for the pro-party government to help tourism and tourism operators maintain business and retain talents.
Since the outbreak of the new coronavirus pneumonia, Taiwan’s tourism industry has been hit hard. The epidemic situation has slowed down before, and people's confidence and enthusiasm for "domestic travel" have increased. However, the recent outbreak of local epidemics has once again made the industry even worse. The number of confirmed cases in Taiwan has soared past 4,000 on the 23rd, and there has been a wave of cancellations in Tainan City recently. Wu Juntai, chairman of the Tainan City Hotel Association, said that in the past, holiday occupancy rates averaged 80% to 90%. On the 23rd, the average occupancy rate was only over 50%. Among them, hotels that mainly accept group guests did not even have 50%, and hotels that mainly accommodated individual travelers did not even reach 50%. Hotels can still maintain an occupancy rate of 70%; Ke Kaiwen, chairman of the Tainan B&B Association, said that the occupancy rate on the 23rd was about 60%, which is much lower than the 90% in previous holidays.
The famous Qishan Old Street, which is always crowded with tourists on Saturdays and Sundays, has recently been reported to have traces of people diagnosed with COVID-19. On the 23rd, there were no crowds on the streets, and businesses almost saw a decline in business.
In Qishan, coupled with the recent increase in the number of confirmed cases of the local epidemic in China, people are almost afraid to go out to spend money. In the past, Qishan Old Street, which was always crowded with tourists during holidays, saw no crowds yesterday. All businesses have experienced a significant decline in business. Ke Yinyong, the owner of "Du Xiaoyue", the only noodle shop selling Danzi noodles in the old street, said that he has been selling noodles in Qishan for 26 years, and his customers are almost all local regulars. He originally thought that the impact of the epidemic would not be big, but yesterday he really felt that business was very poor. There were no crowds on the old streets, and a few regular customers went to noodle shops to buy takeaways. People almost did not dare to eat out, and business dropped by more than 30%.
The Democratic Progressive Party authorities recently announced a policy that requires three doses of vaccine before participating in group tours, triggering a backlash from the industry. The Kuomintang invited relevant industry players to hold a press conference, criticizing the "command center" for its rough and arbitrary decision-making and failure to communicate horizontally with relevant "ministries" and industry players. It is estimated that the tourism industry has lost 10 billion yuan (NT$, the same below), tourists' itineraries have been ruined, and people's The party authorities have even broken trust with the people, resulting in a "three losses" situation.
Li Qiyue, spokesperson of the Taiwan Travel Industry Quality Assurance Association, mentioned in an interview with China Review News that as soon as the "three-dose order" was issued, the cancellation rate of group tours was about 50%. In the past few days, the number of confirmed cases has soared past 4,000. Travel More than 80% of tour groups have been canceled. When travel agency orders disappear, other related industries will also be affected. He believes that the announcement of the "three-dose order" was too hasty and did not coordinate with the tourism industry. In fact, there is no rigid requirement to have three doses of the vaccine before participating in a group tour. With the number of confirmed cases now exploding, it is not necessary for people to take three doses of the vaccine. Don't dare to go out. Therefore, it can be seen that the DPP authorities want to do things step by step without any rules.
Li Qiyue said that based on overseas experience, this wave of epidemic has not yet reached its peak, and it will take at least two or three months before it declines. Especially the tourism and consumer industries will not be able to overcome the difficulties until the "border" is lifted and mobile phones are operating normally. Therefore, in the most difficult stage, the DPP authorities should help the industry in a timely manner to survive, because the tourism industry operators that can survive until now are actually supporting it by selling iron and selling iron.
Li Qiyue said that in the past, there were more than 40,000 full-time tourism employees in Taiwan, but now there are only more than 20,000 left. Some people have turned to online photography, some have gone to work as food delivery people, and some have gone to drive Uber, etc. Wait, the brain drain in the tourism industry is serious. Especially foreign language talents, the development of these people is very slow. After the loss, for future openings, whether it is the reception arrangements for overseas tourists coming to Taiwan, or the reception of Taiwanese leaving the country, etc., it will create a "talent vacuum" and make the entire service Broken links lead to a decline in service quality.
Li Qiyue gave an example. During the "228" holiday this year, a five-star hotel in Taipei experienced a situation where passengers had to check in and had to wait for up to 8 hours to get a room. This made a lot of news.The reason is that during the epidemic, more than half of the front-line housekeeping staff were away. As a result, the hotel's room cleaning capacity was not enough to support the full room situation for consecutive holidays. This is one of the situations where the talent chain is broken, and it may also happen in the future.
Li Qiyue pointed out that if the DPP authorities do not propose assistance measures for these industries now to help the industry retain talents, when the tourism industry reverses in the future, the negative effects of the broken service chain will slowly emerge, which will have a negative impact on Taiwan's history. The situation of the tourism industry creating foreign exchange is very unfavorable. (Source: Straits Herald)
