COVID-19 WEEKLY UPDATES March 9th, 2020 EAST WEST MARKETING 1 WEEKLY FOCUS VOICES FROM CHINESE AUTHORITIES & 1 5 DATA ANALYSIS THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON CHINA TIMELINE 2 6 TOURISM INDUSTRY INDUSTRY FEEDBACK FROM CHINESE NUMBERS Industry Feedback From Travel 3 7 TRAVELCorporates TRADE in &China VAC STATUS 4 THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON GLOBAL 8 CHINA SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT SNAPSHOT COUNTRIES (2/24 - 3/8) & MEDIA UPDATE 2 1 WEEKLY FOCUS • China's new COVID-19 cases drop to double-digit figures since Jan 21st ,2020. • Some 21 of the 31 mainland regions have lowered emergency response levels. • Around 80 per cent of restaurants and shopping centers have reopened in major cities. • Beijing Baicheng International Travel has held an internal meeting for liquidation. • Italy announces lockdown as global coronavirus cases surpass 110,000. 3 2 TIMELINE Mar. 3, 2020 Italy announced the death toll in the country reached 77, surpassing the total deaths in Iran, which stand at 77. Mar. 5, 2020 Cases and deaths rise in U.S. ; Congress allots $8.3 billions. Mar. 6, 2020 The northwestern Chinese province of Gansu reported 11 new confirmed coronavirus patients, all of whom entered China on commercial flights from Iran, according to state media. Mar. 7, 2020 China's new COVID-19 cases drop to double-digit figures since Jan 21st ,2020. Mar. 8, 2020 Saudi authorities locked down the eastern Qatif region in a bid to contain the fast-spreading virus. 4 3 NUMBERS Spread of the COVID-19 in China Confirmed cases 80,904 in China Suspicious list 421 Recovered 58,684 Deaths 3,123 By the March 9th ,2020 5 4 THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON GLOBAL COUNTRIES JAPAN • Japan will quarantine people arriving from South Korea and China for two weeks at designated facilities to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday. The measure will take effect at 12:00 am on March 9 and last through March 31. • The coronavirus has weighed on the transport and tourism sectors in Japan. The number of passengers between Feb 1- 19 of the Shinkansen Line connecting Tokyo and Osaka fell 8% from a year earlier, its operator Central Japan Railway Co said, adding that of those who used other express trains plunged 15%. ITALY • Italy's health ministry reported 1,492 new cases , along with 133 more deaths, bringing its respective overall totals to 7,375 cases and 366 deaths on March 8th, 2020. The new development pushes Italy ahead of South Korea as the country with the highest number of cases behind China. 6 4 THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON GLOBAL COUNTRIES SOUTH KOREA • South Korea reported 69 new coronavirus cases on Monday (March 9), bringing the country's total infections to 7,382, the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said. The updated numbers came a day after some officials expressed cautious hope the outbreak may be slowing, with the rate of increase dropping to its lowest in 10 days on Sunday. IRAN • Iran's health ministry on Sunday reported 49 new deaths from the COVID-19 disease, the highest toll within 24 hours since the start of the novel coronavirus outbreak in the country. 7 4 THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON GLOBAL COUNTRIES Spread of the COVID-19 in the world Total confirmed cases 110,095 Currently Infected 43,962 Recovered 62,302 Deaths 3,831 By the March 9th ,2020 8 5 VOICES FROM CHINESE AUTHORITIES & DATA ANALYSIS • Around 80 per cent of restaurants and shopping centers have reopened in major cities such as Beijing and Guangzhou, search engine Baidu said on March 5th, 2020, although traffic is light in restaurants and malls. • Over 90 per cent of businesses in the large southern province of Guangdong had resumed work as of Tuesday (March 3rd , 2020), state media said. • As the Reuters said on March 6th , some 21 of the 31 mainland regions have lowered emergency response levels. • According to a survey conducted recently by the Research Group of the Chinese Federation of Enterprises, the return on work among the top 500 manufacturing companies in China was 97.08%. • Local governments are providing financial support to help businesses stay afloat, with the southern city of Zhuhai offering companies 500 yuan ($72) for each new employee they hire, while paying firms 80 yuan a day to compensate for each employee still under lockdown in Hubei province, Reuters said on Shenzhen. 9 5 VOICES FROM CHINESE AUTHORITIES & DATA ANALYSIS • In China, new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the last week(Mar 03 - Mar 08) respectively are: 119, 139, 143, 99, 44, 40, in which 115, 134, 126, 74, 41, 36, of these cases are of Hubei Province. China's daily new confirmed and suspected cases of COVID-19 have experienced a significant decline for last three weeks. • China has closed most of the makeshift hospitals opened to receive COVID-19 patients in the epidemic’s center as the number of new infections in the country hit a record low. • New infections reported from Hubei have been on a downward trend for several weeks. On March 9th, all Covid-19 cases in Hubei Province By the March 9th ,2020 the new cases in the province were in the capital city Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in December. 10 6 THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON CHINA TOURISM INDUSTRY Airline • The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that Asia-Pacific airlines’ January traffic climbed 2.5% compared to the year-ago period, which was the slowest outcome since early 2013 and a decline from the 3.9% increase in December. Softer GDP growth in several of the region’s key economies was compounded by COVID-19 impacts on the international China market. Capacity rose 3.0% and load factor slid 0.4 percentage point to 81.6%. • In an attempt to reboot the aviation industry and boost the economy, the Chinese government has announced it will provide financial support to airlines. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) is hoping to reinvigorate the nation as the coronavirus continues to impact industries. 11 6 THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON CHINA TOURISM INDUSTRY Industry • China's short-term ski industry losses amid the coronavirus outbreak could exceed RMB 8 billion, or USD 1.1 billion, according to a China Daily report. The country has been gearing up in a big way to host to 2022 Winter Olympics. • Beijing Baicheng International Travel, an outbound travel service provider once backed by Alibaba, has held an internal meeting for liquidation. The company blamed a severe impact by the coronavirus outbreak and a lack of cash flow to keep the business afloat. But it has been facing financial troubles since the second half of 2019. Hotel • China's homestay industry has lost around 90% of bookings since the outbreak of the coronavirus, according to data from local home-share platform Xiaozhu. To prepare the homestay business for revival after the outbreak, Alibaba's travel business Fliggy has launched a live streaming channel for members of the newly-founded homestay alliance. 12 7 INDUSTRY FEEDBACK FROM CHINESE TRAVEL TRADE & VAC STATUS Business Business Company City Updates-9 Mar type section Staff members won't go back to office until 31 Mar. They have started to adjust plans to groups through end of this year. At this moment, they have cancelled part of April groups. Caissa is specialized in European packages. As most visa offices still remain closing and the application process is Caissa Tourism Beijing Groups Europe relatively long, they thought there will be few people travel in April to these long-haul destinations. In their opinion, because students' summer vacation might be shortened, they predicted that traveler won't be as many as before. They will discuss plans for summer products internally, and we suggested to add 1 more night on UK+Ireland itineraries. They had launched an Ireland only itinerary departing from late April, but they have cancelled flights already because of COVID-19. They are still selling some UK+Ireland products but no bookings done at this moment. CYTS Beijing Groups Europe The predicted that business may not be totally recover until end of this year because of the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19. Most airlines extended their flights suspension until late April. They are still working from home and no exact date of going back to office. Maybe extend to late Mar or early April. Shared most updated promotional materials to their product development staff. They have cancelled April groups and wait for further notice regarding summer groups. In the past 2 months, people were not able to travel abroad because of the visa & air service suspension. At this moment, COVID-19 has been HCG Group Beijing Groups Europe controlled in China but outbreak in other countries. People don't have much desire to travel internationally to some extent. They have scheduled a training to their staff in April. They have started to go back to office since this week, but their staff members do rotation. They are still handing group cancellation and refund. They thought business might shrink if the summer vacation shortened. Beijing CITS As the COVID-19 is outbreak in other countries, they predicted that there will be fewer people travelling abroad in a few International Travel Beijing Groups Europe months. Service They still have plans of developing UK+Ireland packages, but needs to be confirmed in September. We have shared updated destination information to them. The staff members are working from home and still no confirmed date of going back to office.