The Long Game
How the pandemic is redefining what luxury travel is all about
As international borders remain blurred, the local hospitality industry faces its biggest challenge yet as Malaysia hit its third nationwide lockdown in May; but can there be a turnaround after all for consumerconscious hoteliers with greener investments?
Last December, a News Straits Times article reported that the nation’s tourism sector had suffered losses estimated up to RM100 billion, with tourist receipts (both international and local) taking a steep nosedive from an approximate of RM86.14 billion to RM12.68 billion. A devastating domino effect, what once was considered as Malaysia’s third highest gross domestic product (GDP) with a total labour force of 23.6 per cent—3.6 million people, to be exact—has been relegated to rank fourth, due to its declining contributions toward Malaysia’s foreign exchange earnings as many sub-sections in the business, namely the service as well as the F&B industry, have been affected by the blanket dine-in and interstate travel ban.
It’s no news that Malaysia’s economy is worse for wear since the 1997 Asian financial crisis as the nation’s GDP has shrunk by 5.6 per cent, which led to the shutdown of many players in the industry; in November 2020, it was reported on The Asean Post that a total of 204 tourism and hotel operators have shut down since the onset of the first MCO. According to Nancy Shukri, the minister of Malaysia’s Tourism, Arts and Culture organisation, she’s observed that “32 out of 109 entities from the hotel sector and 38 out of 95 tourism agencies were ordered to close by the courts or they closed voluntarily”, and as of May 2020, the unemployment rate of the industry’s workforce came up to 12,000 people. And in another article based on the statistics given by the Langkawi Development Authority, the popular tourist destination had only seen half of its usual crowd, from almost four million visitors annually to a startling new low at 1,281,107 by the end of 2020.
While there seemed to be a brief respite as interstate travel gradually eased up over the months leading into 2021, the sudden spike of numbers that grew in early May saw an abrupt end to domestic travel
and an even stricter Movement Control Order, much to the resignation of the remaining players who struggle to stay active in a game where the rules were either unclear or changed entirely.
Though talks of reviewing, renewing as well as the revival of business models have been brought up by NGOS and governmental bodies alike, the underlying consensus is that the tourism sector must be rebuilt into one that operates in a sustainable, eco-conscious manner, as the industry itself is a polarising topic: on one hand, it’s undeniable that when left unsupervised, mass tourism as well as the act of travelling itself has left its mark on our environment, which in turn wreaks havoc on local communities and their surrounding ecosystems. On the other, both the locals as well as conservation efforts are just as affected when little to no income is made due to the lack of tourists.
“It’s not so much as changing our business model entirely but adapting it to the current needs of our consumers, communities and environment,” Arnaud Girodon says. While the general manager of The Datai Langkawi has admitted to the resort being set back by a huge margin as it was now only operating at a 6 to 10 per cent as opposed to their usual 80 per cent pre-covid-19, he believes that the lockdown hasn’t deterred the notion of travel in the slightest and has instead encouraged a pent-up demand for newer, more profound experiences.
“People are going to be more selective with their travel destinations,” he adds. “They’re more conscious of where and what they want to spend on—not just in terms of monetary value, but their time as well. It’s not just an experience they want, but a quality experience at that.”
When it comes to travel, be it the gastronomical experiences to the quality of the products one uses, the concept of luxury has always been synonymous with the material, but in an era that has never been more focused on the saying ‘health is wealth’, Girodon notes that by maintaining and ensuring that the trust fostered with their guests is rewarded with personalised experiences tailored to their needs, it rebuilds consumer confidence towards the tourism industry as a whole as they feel reassured and relaxed enough to immerse themselves in the experience; which is the entire point of travelling luxuriously.
“From a traveller’s standpoint, because we live in a time where there is so much uncertainty—which will probably continue for a while—the flexibility of booking policies and the installation of proper safety measures as well as hygiene itself further ensures trust with our guests, which is something that private resorts like us can offer,” says Jerome Colson, the general manager of One&only Desaru Coast (OODC).
When asked if the rise of domestic travel could contribute to the industry’s recovery in the long run, Girodon gives a resounding “no”. “Simply relying on domestic travel isn’t sustainable because as soon as the borders open, they’re going to want to go farther than just home,” he observes. “While we have been able to take a breather last December when interstate travel was allowed, what would really help revive the tourism sector is the careful, controlled re-opening of our borders as well as the full administration of vaccines. Otherwise, it’s going to be a rather slow-going process if we continue as it is.”
For Colson, who experienced a steep uphill climb as OODC had only just opened in September 2020, he provides an alternate point of view instead. “As a resort, we used to cater to travellers from all over the world, but now that our business is honed towards more domestic, localised travel, it’s definitely been a new environment that has forced us to be very agile when it came to adapting our strategies to current circumstances.”
“The thing is,” he continues, “while the lockdown may ease in the future, the fact remains that it will take several years before it even disappears. So, I think (domestic travel) may be seen as an opportunity to bridge a mix of domestic and international travel, which was something we had not planned for initially when we opened the resort but I see that as an encouraging sign of growth. A catalyst for the recovery of our industry.”