China News Service, June 28. According to the "European Times" report, with the lifting of the national alert status on June 21, Spain has begun orderly resumption of work and resumption of classes. After the unblocking, will the impact of the epidemic on Chinese business be reduced? Will it promote the transformation and upgrading of related industries? Can overseas Chinese in West see business opportunities in the epidemic crisis? On the other hand, after the summer vacation, the new school year is about to start. Affected by the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, is the offline classroom of the Chinese language school restricted? The reporter conducted some investigations on these issues.
Chinese restaurant: business is gradually improving
The Madrid Kung Fu Theme Restaurant is a Guizhou restaurant with the theme of promoting the "Chinese Kung Fu" culture and commemorating Bruce Lee. Restaurant owner Tan Yue said that after years of painstaking operation, the restaurant is very famous in the Chinese circle, and many Spanish people often come here. But during the epidemic, restaurants were still hit hard by the economy. Fortunately, the restaurant business is gradually recovering.
Sufficient protection "do not fight unprepared battles"
After the outbreak, the Kung Fu theme restaurant was closed from March 8th. After receiving the notice of permission to resume work, it officially resumed work on April 20th. The protection work after resuming work was quite careful. Tan Yue said: "Dinners were not allowed at the time, only take-out, but the store was disinfected every day, and each employee was equipped with a full set of protective equipment. In order to reduce employee contact with the outside world, I even pick them up and go to work every day. Even when I buy food, I ask the seller to deliver it somewhere and then get it myself."
Tan Yue said that during the epidemic, the catering industry suffered a huge blow and was under great pressure. During the shutdown, the expenditure did not decrease at all, such as: rent, water and electricity, network, insurance and quarterly taxes and other fragmented expenses continue to be paid on time. He said: "Before entering the alert state, the number of customers has decreased significantly. Chinese customers may pay more attention to protection, so there were fewer Chinese customers than Spanish customers. After resuming work, the types of customers are relatively more average."
Tan Yue said: "Although our previous business focus was on dine-in food, we have been doing take-out services. Almost all well-known take-out platforms have settled in. This has accumulated a lot of regular customers for us. Dine-in is not allowed, and all of our customers are online. Also because it is an old shop, the situation is much better than expected when I first resumed work. This gave me an inspiration: the future management focus is not only on dine-in and takeout And both hands must be hard. The take-out market cannot be ignored. In the future, we will provide online take-out services while ensuring the quality of dine-in."
Tourism recovery will drive the catering industry economy
Tan Yue believes that as the epidemic continues to downgrade, Spain is also restarting tourism, and this will also lead to a recovery in the catering industry. These changes will gradually improve the current business conditions of Chinese restaurants.
He said: "Taking us as an example, before the unsealing, the number of people who dine in the dining room is still somewhat limited. The reservation system is adopted. In order to maximize the safety of customers, the distance between each table is also large. The dine-in attendance rate of each restaurant should be higher and the income will be much improved."
"Chinese food industry will usher in a new spring"
Referring to the current operating conditions of Chinese restaurants, Tan Yue believes: "As the epidemic situation improves and the Spanish economy recovers, the Chinese restaurant industry will definitely improve. Although some of the "old traditional Chinese food" are affected by various factors, the business is not as good as before, but it is absolutely Most catering companies are following the pace of the times to develop and innovate, and are full of vitality in transformation and upgrading. The rise of the younger generation of catering people has raised the Spanish Chinese restaurant industry to a new height."
He also said: "In the future, if Chinese catering is to survive, large catering companies must establish a response mechanism to think about how to deal with such unexpected situations. Small restaurants must find their own advantages and enhance the overall image of Chinese catering. Chinese Chinese food Although the industry is fiercely competitive, it cannot be viciously competitive, and cannot adopt a low-price strategy. It is the key to balance its own characteristics with localized elements. Since ancient times, Chinese food has been a foothold for Chinese people overseas. We must take good care of our market, Seeking for long-term development. China and the West have maintained good relations of friendship all the time. When the epidemic broke out the most, there was no news that was detrimental to the Chinese. This is a good start for the overseas Chinese in the West. Confidence. After the epidemic, the Chinese restaurant industry will usher in a new spring!"
Chinese Warehouse: Pressure becomes the driving force to accelerate online transformation
The new pneumonia epidemic has had a huge impact on the business of Chinese businessmen in the West, and the warehouse area has also been deeply affected. It is still under great pressure after resuming work.
Zheng Chunlei, executive vice chairman of the Spanish Overseas Chinese Association, is engaged in the clothing wholesale industry in the Cobo Calleja warehouse area in Madrid. He said: "My warehouse has ceased operations on March 12, two days before Spain entered the national alert state." The employees were suspended during the outbreak.
He said: "Clothing is a traditional industry. Although it is not just needed, it is also essential. Originally, consumers will buy clothes and shoes every season. However, due to the epidemic, fewer people go shopping, and sales decrease. There are fewer customers. , The wholesale volume will also be less." "Business is bad, there must be layoffs, great pressure," he said, "we dismissed an employee this time, and everyone including me applied for unemployment benefits gold."
Business increased significantly at the beginning of resumption
Zheng Chunlei said: "On May 18, it entered a state of semi-resumption. At this point, the entire warehouse area is basically synchronized, because we are a whole. Now that Spain is fully closed, we have resumed normal work. The first two of the resumption of work began in May. The business is good this week. There are quite a lot of purchases. There are still many online orders, and the goods will be shipped to them after the order is placed."
He analyzed: "This is mainly because, in time for the season change, many retail stores do not have summer clothes and have to buy new goods. Large companies with more than 400 square meters did not open the door in the first stage of the downgrade, and small retail stores have good business. Everyone during the epidemic They are all at home, they will be short of pajamas, and they want to buy clothes when they lift the ban."
See business opportunities in crisis
"Of course," Zheng Chunlei said, "The biggest pressure still comes from business. The business in the warehouse area is relatively light now. At the end of June, it was also a time for price reductions. We cut prices earlier than retailers. Everyone has a fear. Worry Will the epidemic recur? Next, we will be more confused. Where is the business going? We have no bottom."
He said: "We also saw business opportunities during the crisis. Previously we focused on offline sales. Online mainly focuses on advertising, but now we will consider how to better develop online sales. Change, online sales are becoming more and more important. The biggest advantage of the Chinese is hard work and hard work. When it comes to difficulties, we will face the difficulties. I believe that this time, we can also successfully transform and upgrade in the predicament, the better the better!"
Chinese school: epidemic affects admissions online courses or becomes normal
In addition to resuming work, resuming classes is also the focus of everyone's attention. Whether and how classes can be resumed directly affects the operation of Chinese schools and study abroad agencies.
Regarding the Chinese language school, Huang Ying, the principal of Chinese Business Chinese School, and Huang Xiaojie, the principal of Aihua Chinese School, both emphasized the importance of online courses and revealed considerations for resuming offline classes.
Online courses gradually promote the loss of students
Huang Ying said that the Huashang Chinese School will send recording courses from February and conduct webcast courses from March to June. Students have gradually adapted to online teaching. After the end of this semester, most students continue to enroll in summer classes, and there will be freshmen.
Huang Xiaojie also said that the online online course of Aiwa Chinese School will start in April. After three months of online practice, teachers and students have a sense of accomplishment because the school’s online courses have achieved unexpected results. To this end, in July and August will continue to launch intensive summer vacation classes for all grades.
However, both principals said that online teaching is a new thing, and due to restrictions on the speed of home network, telecommunications equipment and other conditions, the number of students in online courses will be less than the original number.
Do you try offline classes for summer vacation?
When asked if he had plans to resume offline classes, Huang Ying said that most parents and students believe that if conditions permit, they still like classroom education. Spain has gradually returned to normal from June 21st, and the school launched a trial summer course offline this month, and each campus has students enrolled. However, considering that the domestic epidemic has been repeated, Spain is also a big tourist country, and many parents have withdrawn their applications. It seems that it is difficult to resume offline teaching during the summer vacation this year. If everything improves, I hope that the class will be resumed in early September, so that teachers and students Return to class.
Huang Xiaojie is more optimistic. She said that from the perspective of the Western government's anti-epidemic measures regulations, the school will open physical classrooms for summer vacation from July. During the course, strict anti-epidemic, including the number of people in each class and safe distance, disinfection and hygiene.
Fixed expenditure pressure, large epidemic disruption plan affects enrollment
Both principals believe that the epidemic has hit Chinese schools overseas.
Huang Ying said that the first is the long time, and the second is the decrease in the number of students. Most of the school's fixed expenses (including rent, tax, social security and wages) are inevitable, and the overall pressure is great.
Huang Xiaojie also said that the students had the habit and foundation to learn, but they were completely disrupted by the epidemic. Parents also relaxed the requirements for children to learn Chinese because of the pressure of the epidemic. If the epidemic continues, offline classroom enrollment in the second half of the fall will be severely affected, and online courses will become the norm.
Discussing together to explore the difficulties of education
Huang Ying said that the current difficulties are faced by all Chinese schools, and everyone is exploring. Encountered more concentrated issues will also be discussed together, but only some intentions, no restrictive effect. The direction of education in the future should be online and offline, and the teaching content will be constantly updated according to the needs of society, and the requirements for teachers will be higher.
Huang Xiaojie concluded that regardless of the development trend of the epidemic situation in various places, the school is always ready to provide online and offline teaching methods to meet the needs of parents. No matter what the situation is, children’s Chinese learning cannot be ignored. They should always aim to spread Chinese culture, create various conditions for Chinese children, and encourage them to persevere in inheriting Chinese culture well. This is overseas Chinese education. The current tireless determination and the only goal. (Lin Biyan, Tang Yiyi, Liu Yuting, Chen Jzhe)