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Tickets for Shanghai Disneyland is on sale from May 8 and visitors consult at the service center, Shanghai, China, May 8, 2020. /VCG
As restrictions have been gradually loosened in the Western world, multinationals are drawing on the experience of China on how to resume operation amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to Financial Times (FT) on Tuesday.
In late January, the coronavirus, first reported in central China's Wuhan City last December, started battering businesses of multinationals' global portfolio when companies first shuttered most operations in China and further closed most global stores as the pandemic spread worldwide.
As the novel coronavirus pandemic becomes more subdued in China, the country is ramping up efforts to get the economy back on its feet again. Dozens of multinationals have resumed business in China, while their branches in other countries are learning from their Chinese counterparts how to reassure nervous consumers and employees.
According to FT, Kevin Johnson, chief executive of Starbucks, who shut down most of its more than 4,000 Chinese stores in February, said that China offered a "playbook" of new practices, such as taking the temperature of baristas before their shifts, which would be used when its U.S. stores open their doors this week.
A Starbucks non-contact self-service vending machine in Alibaba's offline Hema supermarket, Beijing, China, April 4, 2020. /VCG
Also, the temperatures of guests in French hotel giant Accor need to be screened when they enter most of its sites in China and again at the restaurants. And another hotel giant Hilton claimed that it had identified 10 specific "high touch" areas in guest rooms that would receive even deeper disinfecting than the rest, including switches, remote controls, bathroom surfaces and door handles, reported FT.
U.S. carmaker Ford has meted out a no-contact process for Chinese customers by developing an app to purchase cars online easily, as well as "doorstep delivery of sanitized vehicles," and also creating a safer distance between workers when manufacturing vehicles.
Jim Farley, Ford's chief operating officer, said that "this protocol is being extended to Europe and will also be used when we restart our operations around the world," according to FT, and Ola Kallenius, chief executive of Daimler, whose Mercedes-Benz brand sells more cars in China than anywhere else, affirmed that "the retail trade has very quickly moved to a kind of 'New Normal' in how to deal with the customer.”
The French resort company, Club Med
has begun to receive bookings in its resorts in China, the first region to reopen, as the country further reduced restrictions for the five-day Labor Day holiday beginning May 1.
Xavier Desaulles, CEO of Club Med's APAC Markets business unit, told CGTN that it was important the resorts adapt to the new normal and incorporate required safety and hygiene procedures "to protect the safety of our incoming clients."
The Shanghai Disney Resort
announced Wednesday that it will reopen to the public this coming Monday, the first Disney park in the world to resume operations since the coronavirus pandemic began. But the opening will be for limited attendance only and those wanting to visit the park will have to buy tickets and make reservations in advance.
The State Council of China on Friday issued a guideline that shopping malls, supermarkets, hotels, restaurants and other public places will be fully reopened on the premise of implementing epidemic prevention measures.
