theSun | THURSDAY APRIL 9 2009 13

INTERVIEWS VIEWS

China and one in South Korea. The high nearly half a year before a place was nailed
price tag partly reflected growth potential in down for her son Archie: “There’s been a
Asia. huge amount of uncertainty, and this hasn’t
Cognita, a British education group with been great for the family.”
funds from Englefield Capital, has been Some segments of the market are hurting.
buying up schools overseas including the In China, enrolments at high-end interna-
Australian International School in Singapore tional schools appear to be falling as students
in 2007. Brand name schools such as Dul- move to more affordable schools.
wich College and Harrow School have set up While in Singapore, some international
campuses in China. schools have seen their student bodies shrink
While activity has slowed amid the down- by as much as 20% as expats left when the
turn, big regional players such as Singapore- city-state entered recession.
listed Raffles Education added
capacity in India and Indonesia. A global survey found that 42% of
“This (international educa-
tion) is very much an area that 120 schools expected enrolment
big business has fixed upon,
because returns in the medium in the 2009-2010 school year to
term, even for new schools, are remain the same, while only a fifth said
extremely high,” said Nicholas
Brummitt, the managing director enrolments would fall including schools
of ISC research.
“We know of loads of projects in China, Thailand and Japan.
that are going ahead around the
world regardless of the recession,
they may have a longer time frame now, The recession and the tumbling won
(and) although they may have been scaled in South Korea have led Korean firms to
back in the case of Dubai but they’re still recall expat staff posted in China and other
going ahead,” he said. countries in Asia, dealing a blow to Korean-
A global survey by the Academy of Inter- language schools.
national Schools Heads found that 42% of 120 “The Korean market has been hit really
schools expected enrolment in the 2009-2010 hard,” said John Kung, the founder of Beilin
school year to remain the same, while only International Education Company in Beijing,
a fifth said enrolments would fall including describing a Korean school in Qingdao that is
schools in China, Thailand and Japan. reeling from an exodus of Korean expats and
The fairly robust findings accord with the a sharp fall in the Korean currency.
experience of some new expatriates who’ve Still, the downturn has had little impact on
still struggled to find schools. Hongkong’s top international schools such as
“We enquired with four or five schools, HKIS, which has a long waiting list despite
and effectively all of them had waiting lists,” the mid-term departure of 68 children.
said Lucy Wilkinson, who arrived in Hong- “For us, right now, essentially it’s busi-
kong earlier this year with her kids and hus- ness as usual,” said DJ Condon, the Associate
band Craig, a senior private equity banker Head of Hong Kong International School,
with Lloyds TSB Development Capital. which charges up to HK$165,000 (RM76,000)
“There was nobody who said ‘yes, you a year. “But we are wondering how long that
can have a place,’ ” she added, saying it took will continue, will it change?” – Reuters

Greece’s central bank expects the
crisis to halt the country’s economic
expansion after years of growth at
around 4% annually.
The government recently pledged
funds to pay a subsidy to any hotels
whose workforce at end-May has
not changed from 2008.
It also introduced some tax breaks,
although these did not go far enough
for hoteliers, who complained that
Greece’s 9% hotel occupancy tax
put them at a disadvantage to Spain
– where the rate is 7% and visitors
reached 59 million in 2007, accord-
ing to the UNWTO.
Spain is the world’s second most
popular tourist destination after
France, which had nearly 82 million
visitors in 2007.
Hotels may delay opening to
save money, and hire less staff. In
some cases discounts have already
reached 30%.
“Particularly if you book now
there are some incredible bargains.
This year the goal is not to maximise
profitability but to minimise any kind
of losses,” said George Drakopoulos
of the Association of Greek Tourist
Enterprises.
Businesses that took on loans in
recent years to fund renovations or
expansion are more likely to suf-
fer and the Hellenic Association of
Tourist and Travel Agencies said
lenders had now turned their backs
on tourist enterprises.
“Banks won’t lend to us,” said
Karvelas. “Things are difficult in
Greece. If I can’t make ends meet
this summer I see myself feeding
pigeons on Syntagma Square.”
– Reuters

Tourism as a share of
European nations’ GD
COUNTRIES across Eur P
ope are bracing for les
as economic crisis cut s revenue from tourism
s spe this year
contribution of travel and nding. Below is a list of European countries
tourism to their GDP in with the
2008:
Albania
14.7% Lithuania
Austria 6.2%
14.5% Luxembourg
Armenia 8.1%
10.2% Macedonia
Belgium 6.1%
8.9% Malta
Bosnia Herzegovina 23%
10.3% Montenegro
Bulgaria 24.6%
12% Netherlands
Croatia 7.4%
25.5% Norway
Cyprus 6.1%
21.4% Poland
Czech Republic 7.7%
10.4% Portugal
Denmark 15.7%
8.5% Romania
Estonia 5.8%
20.4% Serbia
Finland 4.7%
8.9% Slovakia
France 12.6%
10.9% Slovenia
Germany 11.9%
8.6% Spain
Greece 17.2%
17.2% Sweden
Hungary 7.1%
6.7% Switzerland
Iceland 12.6%
13.3% UK
Ireland 9.2%
7.3%
Italy
9.7% Sou rce: World Travel & Tou
Latvia rism Council
7.5% (www.wttc.org)