Outbound travel agents blown away by coronavirus
View(s):While low cost carriers like Malaysia’s Malido or Thai Lion have either cut down flights or completely stopped flying into and out of Colombo due to diminishing load factors, the bigger East Asian airlines are maintaining flights.
The coronavirus has badly dented the local travel industry with several outbound agents reporting cancelled bookings of incentive groups to overseas holiday destinations.
Airlines like Singapore Airlines, Emirates and Thai Airways are continuing as usual, industry officials said.
One big outbound travel agent said their business has dropped by 50 per cent. They mostly deal with corporate business travel and incentive groups. “Our business is badly his but somehow we have to survive. I dread to think how other smaller agencies are faring,” he said.
Corporate travel has come to a standstill amidst concerns that travellers may be subject to sudden quarantine measures. In one case, a group of Sri Lankans on a 14 day holiday tour to Italy and other cities in Europe, found themselves quarantined for the entire 2-week period in an Italian hotel, according to one agent.
“Business travellers are not sure whether they would be subject to quarantine measures when travelling abroad and hence are playing it safe and not travelling. This is impacting on the corporate travel business,” he said.
Airlines, understanding the crisis, are allowing cancellations and postponements without any additional costs to agents and travellers.
The worst hit for outbound travel agents are the incentive tours organised by companies, in some cases in groups of 150, for their agents or staff which have been cancelled or postponed particularly to popular cities like Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok or Singapore.
Agents said that business persons who are compelled to travel to confirm sourcing needs for their industries are continuing to travel overseas.