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.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure