Asian airlines and hotels are offering bargains to lure back travellers during the summer holidays, but industry players say the biggest obstacle is whether people have overcome their fear of SARS.
Beyond the allure of airline tickets, five-star hotels and pristine beaches at dirt-cheap prices, much depends on whether people feel safe from catching the SARS virus aboard flights or in the places they are visiting, they said.
"What we are combating is fear and misconceptions, not a runaway epidemic," said China Airlines chief executive Philip Wei (
For example, news that a SARS-infected physician from Taiwan recently travelled to Japan triggered massive hotel cancellations from domestic travellers.
Japanese hoteliers are wary about accepting tourists from SARS-hit areas, said Hitoshi Kamimura, a planning official with the Japan National Tourist Organization.
Japanese tourism officials are in a quandary over a strategy for the summer season, as 30 percent of tourist arrivals come from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong -- the regions hardest hit by the SARS outbreak.
"They are praying for the disease to be contained soon, definitely before July, which is usually the peak month for Asian tourists to visit Japan," Kamimura said.
Airline representatives have called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to send a strong message that proper measures have been taken and there is little risk of getting infected with SARS aboard a flight or at the airport.
The message must also be relayed that SARS has been contained in some countries and they have been removed from the WHO travel advisory list, they said.
"We must cut through the hysteria so that travellers can make informed decisions based on facts," said Giovanni Bisignani, director-general of the International Air Transport Association.
John Koldowski, a managing director at the Pacific Asia Travel Association, said the impact of the promotions "will be significant in giving confidence in the minds of travellers, but it is a drag on the industry because it will affect yields."
"Nonetheless, we need people to come and look and say `Hey we went there, we are well, we did not get sick.' It's the best form of advertising," he said.
Thai Airways is offering buy-one, get-one free tickets on business and first class return tickets to key destinations worldwide, and will sell cut-price fares at a four-day exhibition in Bangkok next month.
Thailand's major hotels are slashing prices by up to 75 percent in an attempt to lure tourists back, a move replicated in many parts of Asia where tourism is a substantial money-spinner.
Vietnam Airlines has reduced ticket costs by as much as 75 percent and hotels have dropped prices by as much as 80 percent.
The National Association of Travel Agents-Singapore launched a major campaign to encourage Singaporeans to travel to non-SARS affected countries.
Singapore Airlines has also cut prices and local hotels have gone beyond slashing costs to disinfecting rooms and checking staff daily for fever in order to be certified as free from the disease.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San
Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian laborer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague’s waiting arms about 15m below. Among Thailand’s most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent “king of fruits” is as distinctive in its smell as its spiky green-brown carapace, and has been farmed in the kingdom for hundreds of years. However, a vicious heat wave engulfing Southeast Asia has resulted in smaller yields and spiraling costs, with growers and sellers increasingly panicked as global warming damages the industry. “This year is a crisis,”