SARS Cannot Beat Taiwan Business

Ever since the fearsome scourge of SARS began spreading its ravages from the mainland Chinese province of Guangdong last month, it has frightened everybody in the affected countries and even the damage caused by the warfare between the United States and Iraq does not seem to equal it at times. Because Taiwan is so close to the southeastern coast of the mainland, and since the policy requiring indirect transportation links forces large numbers of travelers moving between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait to go through the severely infected area of Hong Kong, the impact on Taiwan has in general been much heavier than that suffered by other countries. Business has plummeted precipitously for travel companies, restaurants, tourist hotels, and amusement parks, and all are clamoring for the government to provide alleviative measures to help them through these hard times. The government has already decided to offer low-interest loans, and the Council of Labor Affairs is making plans to use the Employment Stabilization Fund to provide a subsidy of one-fourth of the salaries of workers in travel companies so that employers will not have to resort to massive layoffs and salary reductions that would bring about even more serious social and economic problems. This sudden and severe trial, however, also presents the finest opportunity to show the vitality of Taiwan's enterprises.

Despite the fact that a large number of companies directly affected by the impact of SARS are in distress and do not have the strength to go on, we also see more and more companies in each of the distressed industries that are confronting this adverse situation and coming up with new plans, new ways of doing things, and new methods, not only striving to lighten the losses caused by this sudden blow but even looking for new opportunities and new directions for future development in the process of their vigorous counterattack. Airline companies, for example, are devoting strenuous efforts to the work of preventive sterilization, not only using the safest possible means of providing in-flight meals, constantly giving educational announcements to passengers, and carrying out comprehensive decontamination of aircraft air-circulation systems, but also intensively exchanging air with that outside the aircraft in order to eliminate opportunities for germs to flourish. There are also companies that are offering SARS hospitalization insurance in order to alleviate the concerns of travelers.

These are just the kinds of methods that we have called for in previous editorials. If all air carriers can band together and jointly design an extremely intensive onboard sanitation and sterilization system, so that all cleaning and decontamination tasks and equipment will be handled to a more thorough extent than is normal in our everyday living space, if the screening process for aircrew and passengers alike can be done more conscientiously and effectively, if a consensus among the public can be achieved through broad and effective publicity as well as through actual performance in controlling the spread of the disease, and further if flight routes can be designed to emphasize areas that have a relatively low incidence of disease or that have the most appropriate disease-prevention practices, then we believe that the impact on the aviation industry will be greatly reduced. In regard to travel insurance, judging from the fact that Taiwan's current rate of infection is extremely low and no deaths have resulted, the compensation risk for insurers is infinitesimal; the amount and conditions of payment could be improved several fold, and this would do much to offset the deepest concerns of travelers.

A number of strong travel agencies are also exhausting their energies trying to find business opportunities in these adverse circumstances. Some are using powerful marketing methods to boost their business performance, some are switching their direction toward the development of relatively safe tour routes to substitute for their traditional routes, and some are striving to design tours with special characteristics so that their customers will not give up traveling. Of course, there are also travel agencies that are trying to persuade customers to take trips without fear by focusing directly on the decontamination of aircraft cabins, the safety and sanitation of tour buses, and considerate services. All of these careful and earnest models of operation will spread rapidly throughout the industry, and we are sure that before long most travel agencies in Taiwan will adopt these methods to bring the travel industry back to a certain degree of prosperity.

If travel agencies, airlines, tour-bus operators, restaurants, and accommodations providers-all of which depend on each other as closely as lips and teeth-can work together and move in concord to mold a safe travel system featuring thorough decontamination, excellent environmental sanitation, and comprehensive preventive measures, these are the benefits: they will win the widespread approval of society through manifest promotion and word of mouth, they will be able to win maximum results with a minimum of effort, and they will enable themselves and the workers they employ to get through these hard times as quickly as possible. If this can be done, not only will the majority of domestic consumers cast off their hesitance and return to patronize travel operators once again, but this safe and hygienic travel environment will stand head and shoulders above the crowd and will act as a beacon that will attract foreign travelers to accept our services and choose Taiwan as a safe travel destination.

If the operators in the businesses mentioned above can engage in benevolent competition and struggle for customers and the approval of the public with their cleanliness and sanitation, complete and thorough preventive work, and personnel and facilities that incorporate the highest level of safety consciousness, not only will they greatly reduce the harm done by SARS but will even bring us blessings from this disaster through a major upgrading of Taiwan's concepts of hygiene and the level of cleanliness among the operators. When such a positive effect is brought about by this kind of behavior, other businesses-even if the impact on them is relatively light-will follow suit and join the ranks of those working to heighten cleanliness, hygiene, and disease prevention in Taiwan. When this happens Taiwan will not only win the approbation of the whole world because of the outstanding results of treatment by its medical-care profession, but will also make the people of the world marvel at how it has transformed itself through fundamental change into a safe and hygienic environment.

Despite the fact that there are already a number of operators that are struggling to move in the right direction, they have not yet won satisfactory results, or they have not yet achieved the cooperation of other related industries, or they are still limited to a small number of individual cases and their actions have not yet become a general trend. What we need is an expansion of the results of these efforts through mutual influence among the operators, and even more we need the media to serve as a go-between in disseminating good ideas and good modes of behavior so that they will be dispersed among every operator and every nook and cranny of the island. The media should also give timely praise to those operators in the vanguard of these improvements, so that they will enjoy immediate positive reporting. We are confident that with the brimming vitality of Taiwan's business sector, it will not be irrecoverably beaten down by the sudden onslaught of SARS but will emerge from this baptism by fire with better capabilities and stronger skills than ever. And this will enable the related industries to soar to new heights once the storm of SARS has passed and the skies clear up again.

This editorial was originally published in the Apr. 14 issue of the Chinese-language Economic Daily News. It was translated by CENS senior editor Earl Wieman.