Fuente: ResumenTurismo[:en]Tourism companies, main hotels, must redesign their human resource management schemes to strengthen teamwork, awareness, and reach agreements on special days, stated the past president of the Association of Hotels and Tourism of the Dominican Republic (ASONAHORES) and the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHATA), Enrique De Marchena Kaluche.
The lawyer expert in tourism issues took part in the ASONAHORES meeting to analyze the new work environment in the tourism sector, where he commented on the presentation presented by Tomás Hernández Metz.
Marchena praised the constant effort of ASONAHORES during the pandemic process to promote the recovery of tourism and highlighted the work carried out and the measures adopted by President Luis Abinader and Ministers David Collado (Tourism) and Luis Miguel Decamps (Labor) to restore dynamism to the sector. Below is a transcript of the commentary by Mr. Marchena.
Challenges of working conditions in the tourism sector from the contractual sphere, seasonality, and working hours
With the measures adopted by the Government for the entire Dominican population as a result of the global Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, the main economic sectors of the country were severely hit and one of the most affected turned out to be the travel and tourism sector. Using the terminology of the Labor Code, “we are running out of raw materials”.
The global pandemic forced the country – abruptly and surprisingly – to deal with challenges that were not only immediate but also urgent. In the economic-labor sphere, some of them were and still many are:
- Declaration of a State of Emergency.
- Total temporary stoppage of all operations.
- Border closure – Cancellations of flights and reservations.
- Curfew application.
- Failure to pay by tour operators causing a financial imbalance, also dealing with services already provided and not paid.
- The disappearance of tour operators.
- Temporary and in some cases definitive closure of hotels and restaurants, among others.
- Forced suspensions of thousands of employment contracts.
- Suspensions by mutual agreement with the employees.
- Vacation payment.
- Staff reduction.
- Terminations of employment contracts, which was of great impact for civil society and for the sector itself due to the labor liabilities that it implied.
- Dialogue with unions, not always prone to it.
Application of economic measures by companies to support employees.
- Creation of legal mechanisms by the State to apply suspensions of employment contracts and extend their period. Virtuality-Sirla System-Suspensions online.
- Creation of economic measures by the State in support of “employment”, with the creation of the FASE Program.
- Creation of sanitary measures and their rigorous application modality.
- Teleworking – High Risk-Pregnant-Aged People.
- Induction to workers for the application of sanitary measures.
- Personnel vaccination process.
- Balanced reinstatement of suspended personnel adjusted to the needs of the operations.
- Forced application of new forms of marketing and sale of services. Price reduction for national clients.
- Subscription of payment agreements with service providers and contractors.
- The disappearance of service providers and contractors.
- Slow opening of operations. Lack of raw material.
- Labor and commercial lawsuits.
We can say that this is an X-ray, a brief review of what has been – and still are – the main challenges facing and still facing the travel and tourism sector.
For the purposes of the Covid, added to the efforts to ensure that tourists regain the confidence of going out to enjoy a vacation with prudence and taking the rigorous sanitary measures, this slow opening of operations is added to the struggle with the issue of seasonality; what we call low season – the time of the lean cows-, in which the sector faces a decrease in the visit of thousands of tourists and in the rates they pay, creating an economic impact, at this time, additional, in the operations and its employees who also reduce their income.
The foregoing has led us to recommend our clients in the sector, especially hospitality, to redesign and initiate awareness-raising work with employees; of teamwork, joint effort, applying mutual agreement special days work since, in many hotels, occupations were only seen and are still increased beyond the equilibrium point, only on weekends, with the incorporation of national tourists since the entry of foreign tourists to the country is still limited, due to the travel restrictions of some of the main source markets for the Dominican Republic, such as Canada, Italy, France, Germany, among others. In this mode of occupation, it is not necessary to have the complete payroll of workers the first days of the week with empty hotels.
However, the sector has been recovering and the bet is on the upcoming high season, 2021-2022, in which the sector has high expectations, a joint effort between company-employer, being efficient, always providing confidence to the tourist and 100% complying with the sanitary measures provided by the State.
In conclusion, I must quote the Annual Economic Impact Report of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) which indicates that the pandemic was a hit of 33.9 billion dollars in lost income for the Caribbean travel and tourism sector, which reduced the sector’s contribution to GDP by 58%, more than the world average. Some 680,000 tourism-related jobs were lost, representing almost a quarter of all jobs in the sector.
According to CHTA data partner ForwardKeys, the Caribbean outperformed its global counterparts in terms of international arrivals in July 2021 relative to July 2019, experiencing an overall decrease of 13.2 percent compared to other regions, which suffered losses ranging from 21 percent (Central America) to 85.5 percent (Asia Pacific). The US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico were the best performing Caribbean destinations, with arrivals increasing 106.3% and 39.7%, respectively.
As Vanessa Ledesma, Acting General Director of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), will indicate, “for the region’s tourism and hotel sector to experience a solid recovery, greater government support is needed to cope with the growing operating expenses, coupled with effective communication and public relations, a strong focus on health and safety, a commitment to invest in the region’s human resources, partnership, and collaboration, and improved efficiencies. ”
Finally, I cannot fail to highlight and thank the constant and arduous effort of ASONAHORES, an institution that has put its body and soul at the service of the tourism sector and all its members, since day 1 of the appearance of Covid-19 in our country, an institution that ensures the well-being of the entire tourism sector of the Dominican Republic.
We also thank the Dominican State, led by our President, Luis Abinader, and the Ministers of Tourism, David Collado, and of Labor, Luis Miguel De Camps, for all their efforts and for the measures taken to preserve and promote the most dynamic sector of the Dominican economy.
Thank you!
Source:
ResumenTurismo
