The meetings industry in Slovakia has been hit severely. The turnover is down at almost zero, the costs have been reduced, some trained and experienced people laid-off.
Q: How much damage has the epidemic caused for your company?
The damage is significant, yet not critical. Our company diversified a few years ago in anticipation of a potential crisis like this one. Next to the DMC activities, which represent around half of our income, we have launched several projects that we prepared in the past that offset around 50% of the lost revenues while utilizing some of our DMC staff. We stopped major investments and reviewed other expenses while creating a dedicated financial package to keep the core staff. Also, the government has quickly announced and released a financial scheme aimed at maintaining jobs, which we have used in the months during which the turnover fell the most. So, we have been able to limit the lay-offs down to a minimum and are ready for a gradual „restart“ after the situation gets consolidated.
Q: How do measures put in place by regional governments help with exiting the crisis? What do you miss?
The regional government cancelled the main program for the industry. In cooperation with the regional tourist board, however, we have successfully launched a program focussed on meetings and incentives in the vineyards in Bratislava for mixed small leisure groups and small corporate groups; larger groups gatherings were prohibited. This pilot project, which lasted for 3 months this year, will next year be further developed into a specialized incentive corporate group version enriching the corporate incentive and meeting portfolio for up to 150 pax.
