Hana Tour tells its staff to stay away for 4 more months

Hana Tour headquarters in Jongno District, central Seoul. [NEWS1]

Hana Tour, the country’s largest tour agency, extended unpaid vacations for its staff for another four months as the travel industry continues to suffer from the pandemic.

Hana Tour announced that the four-month unpaid vacation will be extended through March. Hana Tour has around 2,300 workers.

Hana Tour put its staff on paid vacation in March when travel demand collapsed after the coronavirus outbreak. It changed that to unpaid vacation starting in June, which was supposed to continue until November.

“We are not sure on how things will change for us in the coming months,” said a spokesperson for the company. “We are demanding the government expand subsidies, and are trying to generate sales.”

He mentioned the so-called “air travel bubble” arrangements, a bilateral arrangement allowing travelers from two relatively safe cities to visit the other without having to go through quarantines.

On Monday, Hana Tour reported an operating loss of 30.24 billion won ($27.3 million), a 992 percent increase on year from a 2.77 billion won loss during the same period last year. Its revenues went down 94.5 percent to 10.07 billion won during the same period.

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]