Airplanes, who else will buy suitcases?
In 2019, the luggage startup Away became the darling of investors. At that time, no one expected such a huge disaster in 2020.
In the first half of this year, half of Away’s 500 employees were scheduled for vacation, and a blog post on Medium stated that Away’s sales fell by more than 90%.
Not only that, Away is also controversial this year because of the company’s executives. Co-CEO Steph Korey retires for the second time this month. She previously posted some articles criticizing the media on the social platform Instagram, and to some extent blamed them. Part of the reason Korey retired for the first time was because some media reported that she had brought bad habits to the company.
Future prospects
Under the epidemic, how will the tourism and hotel industry develop? Retail and medical industries are all in the process of removing the old and innovating, and may completely change since then; and it is almost impossible for people to collectively terminate tourism activities.
The most likely scenario is that the hotel industry will resume normal business at an extremely slow rate, and this process will be very painful. They not only have to wait for the development of the medical level until the threat of the epidemic is completely eliminated, but also wait for the distribution of medical resources to all parts of the world, and even wait longer until people can travel with peace of mind.
Imagine if you take an Uber car to the airport, board a plane, fly to a certain city in the world, then check in at a hotel, and pass through public areas. At this time, the vaccine has not yet appeared, and even the medical level is not developed enough. , The new coronavirus cannot be treated as easily as the common cold. Will you feel safe?
Thousands of people are unemployed in the hotel and tourism industries, and hundreds of people are still fired every day. The decline of these companies affects far more than just the interests of shareholders and employees. Many places rely on the tourism industry to maintain development, and as the major companies that promote the development of the tourism industry have declined and closed, mom-and-pop shops are even more unsustainable. From small stores to the boards of large companies, every level of the tourism industry feels difficult.
*This article was compiled from Thinknum by Yao Wang.