Revival to begin in Sept
According to MD, GRN Connect, revival from COVID-19 will take at least 5-6 months and normalcy will return only in a phased manner. For now, the company is staying afloat.
Though times are not favourable for any segment of the travel industry, believes that things could start returning to normal in the next five to six months. “We can expect business to be close to normal by the end of September 2020, as we need to give at least six months for travel to bounce back and as expected, domestic travel will start first, then business travel, followed by leisure and cruise vacations,” he shares.
Deepak Narula
His company, too, like many others, has taken a hit because of COVID-19. “This pandemic has hit us very hard as is the case with other trade partners. Currently, we are only handling cancellations and refunds. We are trying to keep our expenses under control to have minimal damage,” he says, adding that the current situation, whenever it gets better, would be a learning for the future. “I think we need to be better prepared in the future for such an eventuality,” Narula remarks.
In addition, he feels it is also important to keep teams together and empower them through knowledge sharing sessions and trainings. “All our team members are safe and staying indoors. We are regularly interacting with each other to stay in contact. We are using this period to enhance our destination knowledge as well as to reinvent our online portal with some new features. We are also working on a post-COVID strategy to revive business by first bringing it to a normal level and then growing
further,” he says. The company is also planning to come up with some exciting new products.
GRN Connect, like several others in the industry, will be opening its office in a phased manner. “We are thinking of going slow on working from office; we will start only with absolutely necessary staff and once the situation is well under control, we will open the office for all,” he shares.