By V. Sivaji
With the reopening of international borders, Penang Hyperlocal sat down with Marriott International Vice President, Asset Management for a Q&A session, Yeoh Soo Hin, on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the Le Méridien Petaling Jaya on June 1, 2022, to get his views and updates on what to look forward to in the hospitality industry.
Yeoh, who is Penang born, is well-placed to share his experience as an international hotelier with Marriott International and other major global brands in the past 30-years, he has worked and lived in multiple locations in Asia including Japan, China and Malaysia but now calls Singapore home. Yeoh is responsible for preserving and expanding the value of managed, franchised and license agreements for Marriott International in Asia Pacific excluding Greater China, while also leading the team that oversees hotel openings. Offering the most powerful portfolio in the industry, Marriott International has 30 brands and over 8,000 properties across 139 countries and territories give people more ways to connect, experience and expand their world.
Q – With the reopening of international borders, what is your view on the hospitality industry for this region?
A) We are experiencing a mini boom in multiple markets as everyone who has been in some kind of lockdown in the past 2-years are now ready to return to normalizing their lives with travel experiences, be it leisure or business. Revenue Per Available (RevPAR) recovery in Q2 2022 has exceeded 2019 in many markets driven by higher room rates, airline tickets have never been more expensive and yet they are all full this month. While the high cost of travel may not last forever, the longer term trend is still bright as the world mints more middle class, demand for travel will only increase as travel is one of those experiences people sought. Look, when I started 30-years ago in this industry, most probably only 10% of the world’s population was travelling. In the past 10-years alone, China alone created 250 million middle class citizens, and the same is replicated in India, South East Asia and Latin America, and everyone wants to travel. Did you know that pre-pandemic, Chinese outbound tourists alone spend more than the entire GDP of Portugal, Greece or Finland?
Q) What are the measures taken in your group to overcome staff shortage in the industry?
A) Everyone has to pay the right salary to attract the right talent, but once they join you, it is the organisation’s role to keep them engaged to want a long term career with you. Our founder, J Willard Marriott operating principle is, “If you take care of employees, they’ll take care of your customers and the customers will keep coming back again and again.” In the long run, things will normalize but currently, many markets suffer from labour mobility restrictions eg in Australia, labour cost shot up because there are no students or backpackers to fill the part-time service roles. In Singapore, we have problems getting foreign labour in, but things are improving. For countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand where a large component of wages are derived from distributed Service Charge, the significant drop in hotel revenue during pandemic had cut take home incomes by up to more than half, which resulted in many exiting the industry. The perceived lack of income security during the long pandemic lock-downs have some ex-hoteliers finding new jobs in other industries.
Q) How can we make the industry popular with the new generation who consider it “long hours and underpaid” ?
A) Believe me, the hotel industry is bright and remains a popular industry worldwide which is why you see more people taking up hospitality courses on leaving school. It is a wonderful industry where you meet people from all walks of life from all over the world. Long hours and underpaid? I’ve always believed that long hours and underpaid matter only if your job is only about earning income for your next meal or treat. If you are passionate about the industry and your company treats you well, you will enjoy your job as much as you enjoy your hobbies. Now, entry level salaries in Malaysia is still low as compared to developed countries where typically hotel General Manager incomes are more like 5 times entry level income rather than 20 times here. There are many opportunities to redesign jobs, automate, outsource or totally eliminate some non-critical processes. In our Marriott Bonvoy app, you can now check-in on the app and even enter your room with our mobile key on the phone app, which had accelerated usage with the outbreak of pandemic. We also found many millennials want the option to work from home where possible. While we all agree coming to the office enhances collaboration but listening to our people, we have now allowed some to work from home since everyone has become an expert in Zoom and Teams in the past 2-years.
Q) In your opinion , which were the countries in this region who have prepared well for the reopening?
A) Singapore by far, they have been planning for this moment since the pandemic started. So, you’d see that they have taken the lion share of the travel re-opening wallet. Bloomberg last week reported that while most Asian airlines are operating at below 20% 2019 capacity in Q2 2022, SQ is already at 61% of 2019 capacity despite not having a domestic market. Singapore was also the first in South East Asia to drop pandemic restrictions on travel, and gladly, we have now seen almost every country dropping the requirement to test, we can only conclude we are on the way not just to recover but exceed 2019 performance. And what happened to Changi Airport the past 2 years? Singapore took the opportunity to renovate T2 and added features where you can go through Immigration without your passport but using iris and facial biometrics. So, the pandemic did not set back Singapore but allowed Singapore to renew and reinvent itself.
Q) On a personal note, how do you unwind after a long day and where do you plan to travel to for your next holiday?
A) I swim, I enjoy Netflix and Youtube, and I read. Next holiday? Hmmm, some short haul destinations in mind like Bali, Langkawi or Bangkok but the goal is to go and watch Tottenham Hotspur play at their new stadium in London during the 2022-23 season. I have supported them for over 40-years and hopefully, we win a trophy this coming season. The new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was completed in 2019 before the pandemic and I’ve always said it is what I do when borders reopen.
In this context, not only the hospitality industry and airline industry is making a comeback, the cruise ship industry is also back in the limelight with several cruise ship companies in the region like Royal Caribbean International ( RCL) and the newly launched Resort World Cruises will commence sailing very soon.
Among the famous brands under the Marriott International group are the likes of The Ritz-Carlton, St Regis Hotels & Resorts, JW Marriott, W Hotels, Edition, M Marriott, Sheraton, Le Meridien, Westin, Renaissance, Courtyard, Four Points, Fairfield, Aloft and many more. They are headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
