China News Service, October 20. According to the report of the European Times, the WeChat public account of the Central and Eastern European version of Weicheng, the epidemic situation in Europe has deteriorated. Governments have adopted stricter control measures, lockdowns, curfews... Under the control measures, many industries such as aviation, tourism, catering, and hotels have been affected.
Some tour guides are now helping delivery shops to deliver food, and some go to restaurants to work to earn a living...For their livelihood, everyone can be described as "eight immortals crossing the sea".
No flights, no tourists... At the beginning of the epidemic, the tourism industry was hit hard first.
Since February, the Chinese-speaking tourism industry in Europe has fallen into "extreme cold", and business has been cleared overnight. Tour guides, travel agencies, hotels, luxury stores, duty-free shops, car rental companies...how can people in the industry chain continue?
Are they doing well now?
For this reason, "Europe Times" interviewed many travel professionals in Austria, Switzerland, France and so on, and listened to them talk about the current life situation and future plans.
Austria
For Chinese tourists who have been to Austria, even if they have never met Lijian, many people will hear his voice in the Chinese explainers in major museums in Austria.
After living in Austria in 1989, Lijian began to devote himself to the tourism industry in 1996 and has a wealth of experience in reception from business delegations to large general tourist groups.
In 2004, Lijian pioneered the Austrian national Chinese-speaking professional tourism leader training and served as the secretary-general of the Austrian Chinese Tourism Federation.
He is currently a lecturer at the European Chinese Tour Guide Training Institute and the dean of the Central and Eastern European Chinese Tour Guide Training Institute.
Senior judge and host of several Golden Microphone European Chinese-speaking Tour Guide Knowledge Competition and the first Super Custom Grand Prix.
Li Jian is better known to the Chinese living in Austria and is the former president of the Austrian Chinese-speaking Tour Guide Association.
Since its establishment in 2013, the Austrian Chinese-speaking Tour Guide Association has trained many regular and national-level tour guides. It is currently a legal tour guide and leader organization for Chinese-speaking tourism recognized by the Austrian state.
Speaking of the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in 2020 on the global tourism industry, Li Jian said frankly that if only one of the couples in the family is engaged in the tourism industry, the impact may still have a buffer, and the couple like his family are both in the tourism industry. , The positive impact of the epidemic on the family's source of income cannot be avoided.
"On February 4th, after sending away my last group of the year until today, I only did one tourism-related and income-generating work, which was to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth at the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum in mid-March. "Exhibition's Chinese speaking device for recording speeches." Li Jian told the "European Times" reporter.
The impact of the epidemic on the Chinese-speaking tourism industry in Austria, especially the main income of tour guides, is almost 100%.
"Of course you can't count everyone's current sideline jobs. There are also tour guides in Austria who are now growing vegetables." Li Jian said with a smile.
"I used to be thin every summer. This year, not only was I not thin, but I also grew a few kilograms and was very rosy." Li Jian said frankly that in the past, people thought that tourism was divided into off-season and peak season. From January to April each year is the so-called "off season." ", but in fact, starting from 2017, the so-called "off season" is no longer "light"; the summer of last year was even more "busy" so that tour guides were afraid to look at their mobile phones.
"I am afraid this year in 2020, because there is nothing on the mobile phone!" Not only is it for Austria, but the impact of the epidemic on the tourism industry around the world is self-evident.
In addition to tour guides, car rental companies and travel agencies in the tourism industry are almost not immune from the epidemic.
“All tourist bus companies are struggling. Small-scale car rental companies with only one, two or two or three vehicles have all closed down during the epidemic.” Li Jian told the European Times reporter, “In the past, we drove through Vienna Maria T. Lesia Square, Golden Hall... countless buses will always stop. What about now? Not even a single person."
In the small-scale Chinese-speaking travel agencies in Europe, the bosses also closed down one after another from the perspective of funding, and many of them went bankrupt.
Many local travel agencies in Europe can only close down because of their limited scale.
Under the epidemic situation, group restaurant shops and duty-free shops have been closed for a long time, and those who open their doors are often unstoppable, and shops are seeking transformation.
Hotels are also struggling to survive. "In the Austrian Eventhotel Pyramide, which has a lot of business contacts in the past, the Chinese team can account for one-third of the hotel’s total business. Now? There are no Chinese tourists, let alone Chinese tourists, tourists from other countries. There is almost none.” Li Jian said, small-scale homestays are even harder to have survivors.
Although the epidemic has directly affected the livelihoods of European Chinese-speaking tour guides, Lijian analyzed that 80%-90% of Chinese-speaking tour guides will not leave the tourism industry because of the epidemic.
"This industry is relatively free. Although there are times when you leave early and return late, the concept of time is relatively vague, and there is no particularly obvious sense of restraint. There is more time for rest and more freedom. There is no need to ask for leave, and you can take free leave in the off-season... Moreover, this is a business of dealing with people, which is more attractive.” Li Jian shared his own experience of many years of working in the industry.
If you only start from concerns about livelihoods, in fact, European countries provide a lot of relief and subsidies for the unemployed. Take Austria as an example, tour guides registered with the Chamber of Commerce can register for subsidies during the epidemic, and release funds without review.
"Of course, the luxury consumption is not as good as usual, but in the state of frugal food and clothing, the previous savings plus state subsidies, it is not a problem to maintain the current normal life." Li Jian said, because the tour guides and business operators need to pay rent The people who wait for fixed-cost expenses are different, so in terms of the current state of life, "the special tension is not there yet."
France
Shi Hengyu, the first secretary-general of the European Chinese Tourism Federation, the founder of French Travel Shopping World, and the president of the All-France Chinese Travel Agency Association, said in an exclusive interview with the "Europe Times" that European tourism has not yet moved towards full freedom for Chinese people. Most people still need travel agencies to organize or recommend. The new crown pneumonia epidemic has a greater impact on travel agencies, and travel agencies have encountered a cliff-like business stop.
Shi Hengyu said that before the outbreak of the domestic epidemic in January this year, many member agencies of the All-France Association of Chinese Travel Agents (hereinafter referred to as ACAV) had a good New Year opening.
Unexpectedly, there was an epidemic in the country in late January, and almost all member agencies received requests from guests to withdraw from the group.
On the one hand, everyone is dealing with more and more unsubscriptions, and on the other hand, they actively donate money to buy masks to support domestic anti-epidemic work, hoping to contribute to the early control of the epidemic.
With the outbreak of the European epidemic, foot bans, customs closures, and aircraft suspensions, the tourism business of ACAV member units under this sudden new crown pneumonia epidemic is in a state of stagnation.
Of course, the biggest hits are the larger travel agencies and tourism transportation companies, because their fixed asset investment cost base is large, while other travel agencies are mainly labor costs.
Among ACAV members, 5% of the member companies chose to stop production and dormant, wait for the epidemic to end before restarting.
20% of the member clubs have some business intermittently, and their business volume is only 1%-15% of the same period last year. The remaining member clubs have no business at all and zero income.
ACAV member agencies are small businesses, and the epidemic has put great pressure on travel agencies.
"In order to find emergency solutions and communicate information, we organized several WeChat group chats and online video conferences. Everyone talked freely, shared their opinions, exchanged information, and broadened their ideas." In order to maintain daily labor and shop expenses, most member clubs In accordance with the French government's corporate rescue policy, it applied for short-term joint anti-epidemic relief funds to relevant departments, and sacked some employees according to the company law or handled partial unemployment procedures for employees to work remotely to reduce costs.
At the same time, all travel agencies actively think of ways to use the no-goers-free phase to improve their business capabilities, train tour guides, organize "tours", and promote French scenic spots.
Among them, member units such as Wenhua Travel Agency, Caesars France Travel Agency, and Youziyou Travel Agency actively launched their "Wandering" products, hoping to win the favor of a group of overseas Chinese in France.
After lifting the ban, Eurasian Travel Agency quickly opened a special tourist route in France.
However, all of these activities have not yet earned income, the epidemic has put a lot of psychological pressure on guests, and the number of participants in the group will be limited.
At the same time, based on these circumstances, ACAV members used the dual culture of thinking of the Chinese in France to share the feasibility or operability plans in the near, mid and long term.
Shi Hengyu said that the short-term plan is to explore and develop the in-situ market for overseas Chinese in France and the open countries of the European Union.
"To give full play to our professional expertise, carefully design suitable for overseas Chinese living in France to do in-depth tours in this country without going far away, such as health themed tours, exploring French history, and local culture tours." Help or assist Chinese people from various countries to visit, interact and communicate, and achieve The overseas Chinese and overseas Chinese in Europe are like a family, hug together to keep warm, spread Chinese traditional culture to the mainstream society, and tell Chinese stories well.
The medium-term plan is to use the opportunity and time before the epidemic to build a comprehensive service-oriented Chinese tourist distribution center.
Calculated from the perspective of professionals, after the epidemic, Chinese people going abroad will start with individual tourists.
It takes a certain amount of time to recover from the real group tour and group tour.
"A wide range of information asymmetry requires us to solve the various needs of individual travelers after landing, including emergency services for emergencies such as loss, loss, and illness." This center can be synchronized online and offline, integrating catering, leisure, and Consultation, food, lodging, entertainment and shopping and other fragmented and localized services. At the same time, it has launched and cooperated with the tourism committees and tourism bureaus of various places in France to receive and serve Chinese individual tourists, family tourists and minority group tours.
The long-term plan is to develop a Sino-French cultural tourism platform, play the role of dual cultural people, promote it to the mainstream French society and industry, and promote a beautiful China trip.
Show French tourism resources and culture to Chinese tourists and industries, and tell the stories of China and France well.
The sustainable development of the industry is achieved through the planning of large-scale cultural, sports, business, and tourism activities such as exhibitions, exhibitions, and sales.
Switzerland
Li Yihong, the chairman of the Swiss Association for the Promotion of Chinese Culture and the chairman of the Swiss Tourism Association, said in an exclusive interview with the European Times that the Chinese-speaking tourism industry in Switzerland is also affected by the epidemic. There is no team, and many tour guides have started to buy.
Under the epidemic situation, the larger the company, the greater the expenditure, and layoffs are normal.
Of course, if you are a tourism industry practitioner who filed taxes in Switzerland before, you can receive reduced wages and other subsidies and interest-free loans for the tourism industry under Swiss social security.
Li Yihong said that since many tourists have begun to transform during the epidemic, practitioners in the tourism industry are flexible, and some people see the trend and buy some restaurants or low-priced hotels, and focus on other industries. There may be some people in the epidemic. After the end, I will not travel again.
And if you save yourself by short-term work in a restaurant, you may come back.
The all-round impact of the epidemic on the tourism industry has not only affected travel agencies and tour guides, but Chinese employees of many luxury brands and watch brands have not resumed work so far.
Many private hospitals in Switzerland, etc., have begun to transform and develop some products that they can sell because many large customers in China cannot get out, and gradually improve network diagnosis and treatment, network consultation, etc.
In the past few months of the epidemic, some hospitals have gradually stepped onto the track of networking and have begun to connect with the indispensable Chinese market.
Regarding the hotel industry, Switzerland has been promoting domestic demand. For example, many hotels in Lucerne will still be fully booked on weekends, because firstly everyone has the desire to go out to spend, and secondly because of the change in hotel prices, people with government subsidies feel that they are spending. Affordable.
Of course, the overall downward trend is still irreversible for the time being.
When will the tourism industry resume?
This has a lot to do with whether the epidemic will repeat and when the vaccine will be available.
Li Yihong said that she doesn't think there will be a so-called "retaliatory rebound" soon, and it will not recover until at least 2022 or 2023, after a slow process.
But in Li Yihong's view, the changes in the tourism industry are not just because of the epidemic.
Over the years, the rapid development of various domestic apps has caused travel agencies to lose many functions, which has already affected the transformation of the tourism industry.
From selling air tickets to transforming to renting a car and picking up a tour guide, to picking up an agency that has been severely impacted by apps in recent years... In fact, the travel industry has never allowed employees to live in peace.
The important thing at the moment is that practitioners in the tourism industry cannot follow the app, but should let the app follow them to develop some blind spot resources.
Even if there is no epidemic, tourists still need to integrate and evaluate themselves, and they can expand other industries based on tourism. Everyone's starting point and contacts are there. There is no real death in the tourism industry, but sometimes their horizons are limited.
Practitioners in the tourism industry tend to be more flexible, receive wide-ranging information, and accumulate more relationships, and there are many directions to go. Although the tourism industry is temporarily down, those who persist will definitely find a more suitable path.
There are some restaurants in Geneva that were originally business-like because of the poor location, but they always insisted on the quality of good food. During the epidemic, they became better than before by doing take-out business. They have become well-known takeaway restaurants in Geneva and opened up a new one. road.
Because of the epidemic, Swiss people who didn't use the app to place orders have also begun to learn to adapt to them.
After the outbreak began, Li Yihong became a wine agent. She used to cooperate with some Swiss restaurants when she was traveling. She was their customers at the time, and now they have become her customers.
Choosing the most suitable three of dozens of wines for a particular dish in a restaurant has become her daily routine.
"I am confident that the epidemic will be over, the tourism industry will recover, and I will come back again, but what I will do in the future will definitely be different from before." Li Yihong said frankly, "Before busy, many people were mistakenly characterized by others. The epidemic has given us all time to calm down and see which role is best for us in this industry.” (Xiu Xiu)