2020 marks many losses and hard-won gains, management heads say

This year and the pandemic have prompted a substantial financial loss and loss of personnel for the city’s various industries, but it has also heralded changes that would otherwise not have happened, the city’s big names recalled in yesterday’s panel discussion held by the Australian Chamber of Commerce Macau (AustCham Macau).
Over the past 10 months, the tourism industry has been one of the industries hardest hit by Covid-19 in Macau. The high volatility of the epidemic also made it hard for the hospitality sector to run business, Multi-Property Vice President of Sheraton Grand Macau and St. Regis Macao Janet McNab called the period rock bottom whilst speaking at the event.
“The constant change made it difficult, really, really difficult to operate,” said McNab, saying that in the early stages of the outbreak, the specter of the financial hardship was very real. This prompted her and her team to discuss survival tactics on a weekly basis “to make it through next week.”
The executive said she always vacillated between worrying about the livelihoods of staff members and the decision to reduce personnel to save business. She acknowledged that the “pressure on the payroll is huge” and some hard decisions must be made to “mitigate the damage.”
Over the next six months, McNab predicts the situation will be “more or less the same” and the business focus of her hotels will continue to be to alleviate financial losses, as she stressed that it will take time for the confidence of global travelers to return to pre-pandemic levels.
The “daily exhaustion” that afflicted McNab pushed her to be “purpose-driven” and face down the massive challenge of to making timely business decisions to turn the tide in the battle against the virus.
Another key speaker, Head of the Internal Audit Department of Banco Comercial de Macau (BCM) Patrick Liu, also admitted that the pandemic had upended the bank’s operation at some degree in the beginning.
The bank was faced with a shortage of staff in the early stages due to travel restrictions imposed on all arrivals to Macau. People of almost all nationalities, except those from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, were banned from entering and a 14-day mandatory quarantine was required of all visitor arrivals and returnees.
There came a point where BCM had no choice but shut down some branches due to the personnel shortage. Despite the challenges, Liu said that things turned in his favor. For instance, the IT infrastructure of BCM was bolstered to allow relocated staff and those who can work from home to work remotely during the pandemic. The crisis also taught BCM to be more risk-conscious and prepare contingency plans.
Brian Tomlinson, a professor of the Faculty of Medicine of Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST), was among the three speakers at the event. He shared some medical knowledge and insight on vaccines and treatments to fight against Covid-19.
The panel discussion was held yesterday at the St. Regis Macao by AustCham Macau, a local organization devoted to connecting the business communities of Macau and Australia. Staff Reporter