Investigation on the resumption of work in the tourism industry:
"The lost employees are coming back one after another"
The industry continues to recover from the epidemic, practitioners are confident in the prospects
Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic in the first half of this year, tourism companies have encountered the "darkest moment" since their careers.
However, operating entities such as hotels and travel agencies have actively rescued themselves and found their way out of the crisis through transformation and upgrading and diversified operations.
During the National Day holiday that just passed, the boom in domestic tourism has strengthened everyone's confidence in the recovery of the tourism industry.
In the past six months, what kind of experience did the tourism staff in Guangdong have experienced during the epidemic?
Recently, some people told reporters about their experiences.
Text, picture/Guangzhou Daily all-media reporter Xiao Huanhuan, intern Hong Dou
Hotel Manager Ren Xiong:
Transition to deliver takeaways, hoping to return to the hotel industry
Ren Xiong is 50 years old this year and a native of Guangzhou. He has been in the hotel industry for nearly 30 years. In August last year, he was invited by a friend to move to a boutique hotel in Shenzhen as a manager. At that time, he thought about his wife already working in Shenzhen. , Can have more time to reunite.
But he did not expect that the sudden outbreak of the epidemic put Ren Xiong, who had only worked in Shenzhen for five months, at the risk of unemployment.
Ren Xiong recalled that there were no guests at the time, and hundreds of hotel employees could only swipe their phones in the hotel lobby every day.
"Originally, we even arranged the overtime schedule during the Spring Festival, but in March, the localities were still on high alert. The boss finally couldn't hold it, and since February this year, we have no wages."
Ren Xiong has no source of income. There are old people at the top and young people at the bottom. Various living expenses are on his shoulders. He is completely unprepared for how to survive this period of temporary unemployment.
And Ren Xiong's parents are in their 80s this year, and their two children are studying in Shenzhen, and they need a lot of money every month.
From February to June this year, Ren Xiong and many other employees also initiated labor arbitration against the hotel, demanding that the hotel compensate nearly 70,000 yuan for various losses.
They have won the case recently, but the money has not yet been collected.
"I went to the hotel a few days ago and put a seal on it. The hotel may have to be auctioned before we can get this part of the salary." Ren Xiong asked some colleagues in the hotel industry and learned that during the epidemic, from the hotel industry Many people change careers.
So from June, Ren Xiong began to switch jobs and became a full-time takeaway.
Regardless of wind and rain, there are about 10 hours a day for food delivery, and a monthly income of about six to seven thousand yuan.
Ren Xiong admitted frankly that he has almost no rest time since he became a takeaway. Now he can only meet his wife in Shenzhen every two or three weeks.
"I have been in the hotel industry since 1989. I thought I would be in this industry my whole life, because I love this industry, but I didn't expect to say goodbye to the epidemic when I was 50 years old." Ren Xiong said with a wry smile.
But Ren Xiong still has feelings for the hotel industry.
He said that after experiencing the impact of the epidemic, the tourism and hotel industries have been affected to varying degrees.
Now that the epidemic prevention and control situation is gradually stabilizing, the tourism industry is gradually recovering, and the hotel industry, as the companion industry of the tourism industry, will gradually pick up as the tourism industry picks up.
Ren Xiong said that food delivery is not his professional ideal, as long as he has the opportunity, he still wants to return to work in the hotel industry.
"I believe that next year, I will return to work in the hotel."
Guide Liu Xiaoling:
Suspension of business to do live broadcast and resume work
At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Liu Xiaoling started a live broadcast in a small village in Ruyuan, Guangdong. After adjusting the equipment, she "yelled" to the camera.
"Don't look at the small size of these potatoes, they are authentic alpine potatoes. The villagers grow potatoes with organic fertilizers such as plant ash, pig manure urine, cow manure, etc., which have a long growth period and a good taste..." Live selling agricultural products, now Liu Xiaoling Very learned.
But in fact, Liu Xiaoling is a senior tour guide for a travel agency in Guangdong and has been in the business for more than ten years.
During the epidemic this year, the entire tourism industry pressed the pause button, and Liu Xiaoling “changed careers” and became an anchor for selling goods.
"After the epidemic began, our tour guides were all unemployed in disguise, because the absence of a tour group meant that there was no income." Liu Xiaoling said, the feeling seemed to have fallen from the top of a high building into an abyss.
"You know, during the Spring Festival of 2019, I led the group almost every day. Although it was also very hard, but there was joy in the hardship. After so many years, January to March is my busiest time, but this year's 3 I stayed at home for months."
Liu Xiaoling felt that she could not sit still and decided to save herself.
"Every tour guide has met a lot of tourists at work, so I think I can try social e-commerce." Forced by the situation, Liu Xiaoling has also learned "18 martial arts", and now she not only sells live on major social platforms Huo, taking advantage of her previous tour guide's familiarity with local customs and local products, she specializes in a local product e-commerce company. She brings the tourists she knows before to a group and helps everyone recommend local products.
Liu Xiaoling is gratified that the state has introduced many measures to support the recovery of the tourism industry.
From August this year, Liu Xiaoling resumed leading the group.
She said that from the current situation, outbound tourism is difficult to recover in the short term, but domestic tourism, especially the surrounding tourism, has shown a strong recovery momentum.
Like this year’s National Day Golden Week, Liu Xiaoling took 3 tourist groups to Guangxi and Fujian.
Liu Xiaoling said that the epidemic has forced a group of tourism practitioners to switch to another career path, but most practitioners are still willing to wait for the tourism industry to recover after the epidemic.
And this year's "11th" domestic tourism boom has given her renewed confidence in the prospects of the tourism industry.
In the future, she also plans to apply live broadcast skills to tour groups to give tourists some different experiences.
Person in charge of travel agency:
Take the lead in "cross-border" and hope to return to the peak
Liu Haifeng (pseudonym) is the deputy general manager of a small-scale travel agency in Guangdong.
He said that the epidemic this year has had a particularly large impact on the tourism industry.
Take his company as an example. From January to March in previous years, there was a turnover of about 10 million yuan, but this year it was almost zero.
For small travel agencies, whether they can make a profit in one year and whether they can survive the next year depends on the performance of these three months.
"This year is really the hardest year. I know a lot of offline travel agencies, and now they have all changed careers."
Liu Haifeng told reporters that throughout the first half of the year, the company's revenue decreased by more than 70% compared with the same period last year.
Since March, the company’s office space has been retired, and the company’s top executives have taken the lead to stop paying wages. Under the epidemic, the company’s employees have also lost half of them, and only recently have they returned.
Even so, rent, basic employee wages and social security are still not small expenditures.
"During the epidemic this year, many small domestic travel agencies closed down. They had no business for four consecutive months, and they had to pay staff salaries and venue fees. It would be difficult to sustain it without sufficient funds."
Liu Haifeng lamented that for travel companies, the first countermeasure is transformation and upgrading and diversified operations.
Liu Haifeng also started live streaming on major platforms.
"The impact of the epidemic on the main business is too great, forcing us to develop new businesses." Liu Haifeng used the advantage of the close relationship between travel agencies and hotels to help major hotels in Guangdong bring goods through live broadcasts, including promoting hotel special packages and holiday products And so on; secondly, the company also launched "all-employee marketing" and "all-employee crossover".
During the epidemic, the tourism industry did not open up, so Liu Haifeng asked all employees to live online to bring goods to keep the heat up. For example, some employees sold beauty products during the live broadcast, and some employees developed baking into a sideline because they knew baking technology. , During the epidemic, live selling personalized bakery products is also hot.
After the tourism industry has gradually recovered, not only the company's sales staff are responsible for product sales, but everyone including the company's senior management has mobilized to participate in the marketing of tourism products through online and offline methods.
"Encourage them to'start' from acquaintances and sell our travel products to relatives and friends. This year's trip is safe and cost-effective." Liu Haifeng said.
Liu Haifeng said that although this year's epidemic has brought a huge impact on the tourism industry, he believes that Guangdong's tourism industry has enough resilience to deal with the impact of the epidemic. By the Spring Festival next year, the tourism industry will usher in another peak.
"Because everyone's living standards have improved and traveling is just needed, so travel companies will definitely have a lot of room for development."