Maintaining optimism amidst adversity 2O2O
Travel guide, caterer and fitness enthusiast share their stories about challenges and perseverance during these tough times
ABOUT 11 months ago, Felicia Liaw was enjoying her greatest passion – leading a group of tourists from Sarawak to discover the wonders and cultures of this part of the world.
At the time, the experienced tour guide was in South Korea when Covid-19 had just begun to cause travel disruptions around the globe.
“It was spring back then, but we could still feel the chill from the winter’s end – just like the weather, we felt the ‘unusually cold attitude’ of the locals.
“They avoided any close physical contact, despite other efforts that they made to welcome the tourists from abroad,” Liaw recalled, adding that everyone in the tour group could sense their concern and what they were in fear of.
“Wearing masks was ‘ a little taboo thing’ back then – (it indicated) either one was having a bad flu, or was coughing.
“Imagine the sight – welcoming a bus full of mask-wearing tourists.”
‘Travelling is in my blood’
Although the tour that Liaw led back then was just a month shy of the Malaysian government’s implementation of the nationwide Movement Control Order (MCO) back home, she initially did not expect the Covid-19 pandemic would spread and ravage all over the world.
“It did not appear as shocking to me initially as we managed to survive the SARS outbreak in 2003, and the tourism industry then was not affected immediately.
“But when more countries started to close their borders over the course of a few weeks or so, it was a red alert for the tourism industry.”
Liaw, who had been in the tourism industry for more than 20 years, said the change was so sudden that it caught everyone by surprise.
Like many of her peers involved in tourism, she was forced to take a hiatus from the industry.
“For me, I felt despair and anxiety. There was also the incremental weight over my shoulders as the media kept on breaking endless news about Covid-19, most of which were bad news.
“My income plummeted to zero, and seeking for an immediate alternative income became the priority. I had no choice but to adapt to the new normal,” she said.
Liaw counted herself lucky as she was able to find a new job.
“I’m currently helping out my friend running a retail business, doing marketing and customer relationship management,” she said.
Liaw said although the Covid19 pandemic had brought the travel industry to a standstill, she remained optimistic that the tourism sector would recover and gradually return to normalcy one day.
“Hope is what keeps us going. “I know I am not alone in this for I’m sure every tour guide out there is also hoping for the same – for the world to go back to normal when it overcomes this brutal pandemic.”
She said once that day arrived, she would immediately go back to her main passion – being a tour guide.
“Travelling is in my blood and if I could fly out tonight, I would with my group of travellers.”
A lot on his plate
When the pandemic hit, it particularly affected small business owners such as Adrian Gawing Kenny Jimbon.
The chef had just set up his very own cafe last year, which also provided catering services to corporate and private clienteles.
Business was brisk then as the majority of his customers came from the corporate sector, ranging from micro to mediumsized enterprises.
One of his largest catering projects to date was when his café was appointed as the official caterer for Malaysia’s first Hollywood epic film, ‘Rajah’, which had undergone shooting in Kuching for 34 days.
But as the Covid-19 infections began to spread in Malaysia this year, leaving the government no choice but to enforce the MCO in March, Adrian knew that his business would be facing a challenging time ahead, as the catering jobs had always been dependent on events.
“The event jobs that we accepted were either reduced, postponed or cancelled due to the MCO’s standard operating procedures (SOP) being enforced.
“This pandemic was unprecedented, with new SOPs being implemented every few weeks.
“We had to keep ourselves updated and at the same time, we also had to be firm with our customers and made sure that they must follow the SOP too,” he said.
Adrian’s café, like other businesses, experienced a drastic drop in sales despite eateries being allowed to remain open during the MCO period – albeit subject to a number of restrictions.
“In order to minimise losses, we decided to scale down our operation by moving to a new and smaller premises, since we received cancellations from customers and saw a massive drop in the number of catering events due to the MCO’s SOP ruling,” he said.
In order to sustain through these tough times and uncertainties, the 36-yearold managed to come up with a number strategies to keep his business afloat – among them were collaboration with other food and beverage (F&B) businesses on menu promotions, provision of home-delivery / takeaway menus for families, offering office-delivery lunch menus, and also using social media to promote his café and to thank customers for their support.
“We’re fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to cater packed food for students at one of the private universities in Kuching during the first three weeks of MCO.
“For now, our business is surviving on small-scale catering, most of which are packed foodbased catering,” he said, adding that he had also signed up for food delivery app services.
Adrian said with the situation in Sarawak having improved lately and the government loosening the SOP for businesses, his operations had begun to pick up – albeit slowly.
“It is a long road towards recovery.
“I also notice that there’s a slight change in the way people eat. Many of them now prefer to get their food delivered to them either to their houses or offices.
“Our catering business is also slowly improving as more and more people are opting for individually-packed food for office meetings or events.
“But of course, this also depends on the current daily updates on Covid-19 reports and affected areas,” he added.
Frustrated by gym closure
Fitness studio owner Vincent Mallang Alfred really suffered a blow when all gyms and workout centres across the country were instructed to close as part of the government’s stringent measures to contain Covid-19 infections.
“Following the directive, we had to close down our operation straight away and put out notice for our students.
“We also had to freeze their membership accounts – until further notice.
“We lost close to 50 per cent of our revenue, in comparison with what we earned last year.
“It hit us really hard,” said the personal trainer, who has been running his studio for four years.
Nonetheless, Vincent knew that no matter what, he had to adapt quickly to survive and to do so, he had to find ways to stay engaged with his clients throughout the MCO period.
“At first, I felt quite frustrated when I heard that all gyms and fitness studios had to be closed for months, but thank God, I had good teammates who were willing to put in the effort to improvise our services, so that we could stay connected with our members via online platforms throughout this difficult time.
“We held live workout sessions with our students via Facebook, and we also used the Zoom platform to stay connected with them during the gym closure,” he said, adding that he and his team took around two weeks to get back into running their operations via online.
Though he had to close his fitness studio not once, but twice, this year – the second time due to the emergence of a new cluster in Kuching back in October – Vincent said the majority of his clients had been steadily coming back to work out since the Sarawak government lifted the Conditional MCO (CMCO) in November.
“Apart from our regular students, we’re also seeing new faces after the CMCO. Some of them came back after getting tired from resting at home for so long.
“Then there were some who came back because they had put on some weight,” he laughed.
Vincent admitted that earlier in the year, he found that his vocation had been grinding to a halt.
“At first, it was hard, but now our fitness studio is growing positively.
“We are running it as usual, while maintaining the SOP set by the government.”
Vincent said personally, the Covid-19 pandemic had taught him a few lessons.
“The most important lesson was that I got to spend more time on myself, where I signed up for online classes to upgrade my skills and knowledge, and also I was able to do things that I love to do de-stress myself,” he said.