Throttling solves short-term problems, and open source can solve long-term problems.
Editor’s note: This article comes from the WeChat public account “Global Travel News” (ID: Traveldaily) , author Li Jiayong .
Affected by the new crown epidemic, on January 24, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued an emergency notice requesting national travel agencies and online travel companies to suspend the operation of team tours and “air tickets + hotels” “tourism product. As soon as the notice came out, the travel agency immediately had a day to tighten the belt, and the belt was four months.
Following this, the relevant departments successively issued a series of assistance policies such as refund of guarantee money, social security relief, and rent reduction. Among them, on February 5, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a notice to temporarily withdraw 80% of the current payment of the travel service quality deposit to the travel agency, which won many responses.
“This policy is proposed quickly and implemented quickly. By March, our deposit has been refunded, and tourism bureaus and associations often come to the site to investigate and ask us” have you received the deposit “and” how much have you received ” “Jin Jiang Tourism CEO Zheng Bei reflected.”
On May 6, an executive meeting of the State Council proposed: Increase the VAT exemption for small and micro enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households; for transportation, catering, tourism and other industries that are greatly affected by the epidemic, the loss-carrying years 5 years extended to 8 years; provide low-cost loans for enterprises 2.85 trillion yuan and other policies. Regarding local governments, Shanghai has accelerated the disbursement of special funds for tourism in 2019. Guangdong has proposed that loans can be made without collateral, and various policies are dazzling.
However, on the one hand, the policy is put forward and implemented. On the other hand, cross-provincial and cross-border tourism has not yet been restored. The May Day holiday just passed. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reminded Chinese citizens not to travel abroad. Various policies still restrict the development of the tourism industry, and the snow mountains of tourism enterprises, especially travel agencies, are still collapsing.
On February 29, Baicheng Travel, which has been cultivating the industry for many years, announced its decision to close the company and start preparations for liquidation; on April 26, Beijing China Travel Service issued a notice of suspension of work, suspension of production and salary reduction to all its employees.
In the listed travel agencies, in the first quarter of 2020, Zhongxin Travel ’s operating income decreased by 53.26% year-on-year; the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies decreased by 144.80% year-on-year. Caesars Tourism has the same operating incomeThe net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies decreased by 312.41% year-on-year. It is estimated that the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies in the first half of this year will be 75 million yuan to 125 million yuan, down 220.11% to 300.19% year-on-year.
With the support of the policy, some travel agencies have been clenching their teeth and have lived up their lives. In the absence of income, they have started micro-businesses and sold souvenirs, while some travel agencies have moved to dissolution and bankruptcy. When will this “hole” pierced by the epidemic be filled? Everyone is looking forward to this answer.
Zhou Weihong, Deputy General Manager of Spring and Autumn Tourism: Powerful companies will go by themselves
After the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a policy of temporarily refunding 80% of the guarantee money, the amount that should be refunded to us was soon in place, and a total of more than 36 million yuan was refunded nationwide. In that busy stage of refund, it was rain in time.
In addition to tax incentives, house rent reductions, and loan interest rate preferences, Shanghai has also introduced some local policies, such as stable job subsidies for companies in difficult industries, 800 yuan per person, employee medical insurance contributions reduced by 0.5 percentage points, and unemployment insurance. The post returns 50% of the actual amount paid last year, some of which we are enjoying and some are being declared. I think this is a three-dimensional policy, which shows that our country has better coordination ability in epidemic prevention and control.
Some people may say how much money each citizen and employee in the United States can directly pay. There is no such measure in China, but China protects people ’s lives by other means, such as requiring companies not to lay off employees and issue basic salaries for employees. The government can only help enterprises and let them survive to avoid causing greater social problems.
As a large travel agency, Spring and Autumn Tourism has benefited relatively from the policy, on the one hand because of the high tax contribution, and governments at all levels have some financial support. Moreover, Shanghai Chunqiu Group belongs to the headquarters of private enterprises in the service trade industry, and Shanghai also has 2 million yuan of financial support, although this policy was not formulated only for the impact of the epidemic.
Small travel agencies can make a comeback in the first half year and a year after the dissolution. It may still be that wave of people. Large enterprises must bear more social responsibilities. For example, there are more than 1,000 employees in Shanghai Spring and Autumn Tourism. If they are laid off, where do they go to find a job at this time? Therefore, we have no layoffs and cannot push our employees to the society or to a more difficult point. Of course, this is also because we firmly believe that China can control the epidemic situation and the economic and social order will be restored. This confidence is also very important.
In order to reduce costs and ensure the company ’s normal cash flow, starting in March, the shareholders of the Spring and Autumn Group promised not to take last year ’s dividends or reduce their shares; the management does not take remuneration; except for the IT staff ’s salary adjustment, other employees give The minimum salary in Shanghai is 2480 yuan. Because the property of the Shanghai headquarters is our own, there is no need to pay additional rent, and the cash pressure is alsoNot too big, but the monthly expenditure is still more than 10 million yuan, mainly due to human resources.
In contrast, small and medium-sized enterprises have weak profitability and anti-risk ability, which will be more difficult in this epidemic. In addition, many travel agencies are of an intermediary nature, with low taxes and a low degree of direct employment promotion. Many policy support and bank loans may be more difficult to give priority to small, medium and micro tourism companies.
In the face of disaster, reshuffling is certain and normal. From another point of view, the resurrection of travel agencies is also particularly easy, but many young people have not experienced such great difficulties, they will change jobs, the industry will lose some talent. However, after the epidemic has passed, there will certainly be new forces to join in. New capital and new concepts will bring a lot of new stimulation and transformation to the development of the tourism industry.
I always feel that policy support is part of it. Competitive and risk-resistant companies will go by themselves. There are already many policies in China. If you ca n’t go through it, you need to find the reason yourself. Why ca n’t you make money before? Why is there insufficient cash flow or financing channels? Why can’t others walk past you?
In the next market revitalization, the government also needs to treat companies fairly. Enterprises that have taken on more social responsibilities during the epidemic should not be forgotten. Their subsequent policy development for revitalizing tourism should be considered. .
Liu Jiangtao, Executive Chairman and CEO of Caesars Tourism: I hope to continue to increase financing support
The supporting policies issued by the government, such as temporary withdrawal of quality guarantee funds and social security relief, have brought a stable effect to the development of enterprises. At present, Caesar Tourism National Corporation has temporarily withdrawn the total warranty for more than 20 million yuan, which has relieved the company’s financial pressure to a certain extent.
However, compared with other industries, the tourism industry has its own particularity and generally lacks resources available for mortgage. Coupled with the global spread of the epidemic, banks have become more wait-and-see on the tourism industry, and tourism companies have certain difficulties in lending and financing.
At present, Caesars Travel has nearly 3,000 employees, and Caesars Travel Industry has more than 6,000 employees. Before the spread of the epidemic, the company’s management has reduced fixed costs through communication with suppliers and property owners. At the same time, through publicity and communication, it has stabilized the workforce to ensure that the company can achieve stable operation at the lowest cost in the current state. .
In order to promote sustainable development, and considering the longer recovery time of the overseas tourism market, Caesars Tourism is grafting mature overseas tourism operation experience to domestic tourism, launching online live courses, creating local leisure tourism The series involves new products integrating outdoor, parent-child and cultural tourism.
From various perspectives, although the current support policy has not fully covered the needs of enterprises,However, compared with the “SARS” period, this set of policies “combined boxing” is more precise and responds faster.
However, based on the particularity of the tourism industry, the epidemic has affected the entire tourism industry for a long time, and it is hoped that the government and relevant agencies will increase their efforts in tax reduction, tax rebate, corporate financing, and industrial support to implement it more quickly. Especially at the level of enterprise development, obtaining the necessary financial support is one of the premises for the enterprise’s own development and job creation. It is hoped that the government will increase its financial support to help the survival and development of enterprises in special periods.
Guo Dongjie, Chairman of Huacheng International Travel Group: I hope to give targeted assistance policies to the “severely hit areas” industry
The return of quality guarantee funds, the deferred payment of social security, and the stabilization of subsidies for bidding have all played a role in the short-term relief of capital pressure, but there is still a long way to go to fundamentally reduce the pressure on the survival of enterprises.
At present, a large part of the assistance policy is aimed at small and micro enterprises, not suitable for large enterprises, and the assistance to the industries in the “severely affected areas” that are difficult to survive needs to be strengthened.
Taking the Beijing area as an example, Huacheng China Travel Group is classified as a large-scale enterprise. The current policy is to levy a three-month social insurance levy of half. Need to spend more than 2 million yuan in social security fees, the amount of relief is only to suspend pressure. For large enterprises, the policy stipulates that the social security can be postponed for 6 months, but this part of the postponed payment must still be paid at the end of the year.
We believe that in a special period, the social security provident fund base should not be verified by the 2019 annual income, but the actual situation of the affected industry this year should be considered to support the policy. As an outbound tourism operator, under the circumstance that the business is completely shut down, it is unprecedented to maintain all the expenses required for basic operations.
Under the impact of the global epidemic, it is difficult for most outbound tour operators to survive on their own. We hope to get strong support from the government from the dimensions of tax reduction, employment assistance, rent reduction, credit support and resumption of production, not just to give some assistance policies in general according to a simple division such as large, medium, small and micro enterprises. It is necessary to take into consideration the particularity of the industry, the huge contribution that the tourism industry has made to China’s economic development, the happy life of the masses, and the bright future.
Jinjiang Tourism CEO Zheng Bei: Only open tourism and resumption of production can solve long-term problems
At present, we have already enjoyed all the policies, such as the suspension of quality insurance funds, the deferred payment of social security, the reduction of medical insurance rates, the return of unemployment insurance funds, and the subsidy for post stability. And because the inbound tour affiliated to Jinjiang Tourism is the largest in Shanghai, more than 2 million yuan in subsidies related to inbound tour have also been received.
These policies have solved our short-term difficulties, but in the long run, resuming production can solve meOur fundamental problem. At present, domestic tourism is gradually recovering, but it still emphasizes that cross-provincial tourism is not allowed. I understand that overseas travel is more difficult to recover, but domestic travel hopes to gradually let go.
Now we can only do pre-sales for local day trips and hotel packages. Team travel and machine plus wine packages are not yet available. This part of income is only a small part for OTAs and travel agencies.
For large OTAs and travel agencies, outbound travel used to be the main force. If we need to transform now, we are also very willing, but the key is to let go of cross-provincial travel, otherwise our business is always very limited. For a large number of travel agencies, although the current cash flow is relatively abundant, it is still difficult to solve the problem of long-term survival.
If we look at the resumption of production, we hope to extend the coverage time of some policies. For example, because the current tourism industry has not fully resumed production, the VAT exemption policy has limited effectiveness. If it ends after the real production is resumed, it is equivalent to not enjoying benefits. It is hoped that this policy will last at least 1 to 2 years before tourism companies can reduce costs, increase profits, and enhance vitality and competitiveness.