Since February 2021, Luxe Asia has been managed by a 3 member Council, comprising of Thajul, Nadeera and Sandeep.
With the emergence of the pandemic, Sri Lanka went on a complete lockdown from mid-March 2020. Since then, the teams have been working from home until May 2021, when we started reporting to work on a roster basis, 2 days per week. During the lockdown period, the staff regularly stayed in touch, and shared the small amount of work that was coming in, and continued doing so even after starting the roster system.
The most awaited reopening of borders only happened at the end of January 2021, creating a sudden interest in the destination. Since then, we have been keeping ourselves busy with the increasing number of enquiries.
We welcomed our first guests from Spain in March, and since then we have been fortunate to welcome clients from other countries such as Romania and Brazil.
What, in your opinion, are the top three challenges that Luxe Asia faced in the past year?
After the 2019 Easter attacks that affected our industry in an unprecedented manner, we never expected 2020 to bring our business to a complete standstill, in less than a year. The top 3 challenges we faced due to the pandemic were:
- Getting used to the new normal and working from home
- A drop in business in less than 1 year after the Easter attacks in 2019, hence the sustainability of the company was badly affected
- Financial constraints linked to zero business
What measures did you take to meet these challenges?
- Adopting to new systems of working remotely : using available platforms such as MS Teams, Zoom etc.
- Exploring the business opportunities in the local market, which we found to be extremely difficult
- Minimizing all costs related to the business operation.
What was the key message to your team during the lockdown, and how did you keep your team morale high?
- Everyday was a challenge and we decided to take one thing at a time. We encouraged the teams to be connected on a regular basis updating each other on work related matters. We also urged them to look into / share ideas on new means of revenue generation. Being part of the Thomas Cook DMC network gave us the confidence and encouragement to get through this challenging period.
The pandemic revealed our vulnerabilities, but it also surfaced extraordinary human resourcefulness and potential. Do give a couple of examples/illustrations.
- Taken into consideration the measures taken to downsize, we were compelled to restructure the organization by breaking away from the market segments. Everyone had to step up and re-skill themselves in order to assure the continuity of the business.
List five words to describe the Luxe Asia team.
- Courageous / motivated / survivors / resourceful / helpful
What message would you like to share with your team today?
- “Never lose hope!”
