Budget 2020: Help for tour guides, firms to mitigate slowdown in tourism

SINGAPORE — Self-employed tour guides will receive a S$1,000 stipend over three months to tide them through the Covid-19 outbreak, and an additional S$600 if they complete 80 hours of training. Companies in the tourism industry will also receive more support to retrain workers.

Manpower Minister Josephine Teo and Mr Chee Hong Tat, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, unveiled these measures on Friday (Feb 21).

These measures are part of the S$4 billion Stabilisation and Support Package announced by Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Heng Swee Keat on Feb 18 in his Budget 2020 speech.

Some of these measures will be rolled out on March 1.

Mrs Teo said that these measures will help tourism companies and workers deal with both the immediate and the long-term impact of Covid-19.

“We know it is a temporary setback but we can take advantage of this opportunity to be prepared for the future because the outlook is still fundamentally a positive one,” she said.

She added that the current slowdown presents an opportunity for firms to retrain their workers.

“While dealing with the immediate challenges, we are also looking into the future and making sure that when the recovery comes, the tourism sector players are ready for it,” she said.

Mrs Teo was speaking to reporters during a visit to Copthorne King’s Hotel, where she and Mr Chee observed how workers are being retrained.

She pointed out that 60 per cent of the Stabilisation and Support Package goes into preventing the loss of jobs.

“If you look at how businesses are dealing with the current downturn, one part of it is managing costs,” said Mrs Teo.

“Even if you manage to stay afloat because the costs have been brought down, what you really need is for people to come back and start shopping, start going to restaurants and start consuming.

“And for that you need (their confidence) — feeling that their jobs are okay and their livelihoods are not compromised.”

ENCOURAGING FIRMS TO RESKILL, UPSKILL WORKERS

Some of the new measures to encourage tourism companies to reskill and upskill workers include:

• Greater funding of up to 90 per cent of training course fees and trainer fees, up from the previous cap of 50 per cent.

• Employers who send their workers for selected training programmes in the next three months will receive absentee payroll support at 90 per cent of hourly basic salary capped at S$10 per hour. They will also receive higher course fee support at 90 per cent of course fees.

• Under a job redesign place-and-train programme, hotels can receive salary support of up to 70 per cent capped at S$2,000 per employee for the training duration. This programme is to encourage hoteliers to upskill workers to take on redesigned job roles. The salary support duration has been extended from three to up to six months.

SUPPORT FOR TOUR GUIDES

• Licensed tour guides who are self-employed and are Singapore citizens or permanent residents can apply to receive S$1,000 over three months.

• Tour guides can receive an additional S$600 from Workforce Singapore when they complete 80 hours of training.

CONCERNS BY BUSINESSES

Mrs Teo also addressed some concerns raised by businesses.

In this year’s Budget, DPM Heng announced measures to help employers waive 8 per cent of wage costs for local employees, capped at a monthly salary of S$3,600 for three months.

Responding to a query on why there was no foreign worker levy waiver in this year’s Budget, which was included in the relief package in 2003 during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak, Mrs Teo said that local employees are the priority.

“At the same time that we want to help the businesses, our priority is on local employees. Now when we provide job support and wage credits all employers of local employees will benefit,” she said.

“If we were instead to do something on the foreign workers levy, then the employers that only have local employees don’t benefit.”

Mrs Teo added that the Government has come up with other ways to help businesses.

“For those that are cash-strapped, we will provide some relief in terms of cash flow and that’s through many schemes like the enterprise financing schemes and so on,” she said.

Companies in different sectors also receive help in the form of rental rebates, Mr Chee pointed out.

The Government, he said, will monitor the situation closely and, if needed, is “prepared to do more”.