Booking Holding's Agoda cuts 1,500 jobs

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Bookings Holdings Inc (BKNG.O)’s Asian online travel agency Agoda cut 1,500 jobs and reduces expense as global travel slowed amid the coronavirus outbreak.

 

“We need to resize and reshape teams to adapt to what travel will look like in the future, and this means that we have taken the very difficult decision to reduce our existing team by 1,500 employees,” chief executive John Brown said in an e-mailed statement to Reuters on Tuesday.

 

The company was also freezing hires, cutting marketing spending and cutting executive pay because the impact of the pandemic will be longer than expected.

 

More than 4.81 million people have been reported to have been infected by the coronavirus and over 317,000 have died, according to a Reuters tally.

 

Airlines around the world have grounded the bulk of their capacity due to government directives and border restrictions.

 

“All senior leadership team members will take a temporary salary reduction of 20%, effective from 1 June 2020,” the statement said.

The company employs around staff of 4,000, its website says.

 

(Reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng, editing by Louise Heavens)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-05-20

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

Not just China’s Wuhan virus killing tourism.  The incredible rising Baht will ensure a complete disaster for tourism.

11 hours ago, webfact said:

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Bookings Holdings Inc (BKNG.O)’s Asian online travel agency Agoda cut 1,500 jobs and reduces expense as global travel slowed amid the coronavirus outbreak.

A sign of the times, Thailand thinks tourism will bounce back this year... think again !