Our employees make it possible.

• Position: Interview

Myanmar reported its first case of COVID-19 on 23 March. The government responded with restrictions to prevent the virus from spreading: banning mass gatherings, suspending visas, issuing stay-at-home orders, quarantining, promoting social distancing and imposing legal actions against those who broke the new laws. It seems that thanks to these prompt actions, the case numbers remained low. But the economic impact for businesses, especially for restaurants and hotels, was devastating.

Myanmar eco-lodge owners Swe Yi and Jens-Uwe Parkitny tell International Trade Forum how they survived the country's lockdown and were able to welcome guests again.

What did the COV1D-19 pandemic and its consequences mean for your business?

We had to close our lodge. Our last guests left on 25 March and at the time, we did not know when we would be able to receive guests again. We felt the financial impact immediately. The high season lasts until the end of April and every week without guests meant losing several thousand US dollars in revenue.

Nevertheless, we decided to keep our staff and continue to pay them their full salaries, using our personal savings. We felt a moral obligation to do so and show our appreciation for their commitment.

We also introduced reduced working hours and weekly shifts with no more than four to five staff members at a time. We focused on renovation, maintenance, cleaning and sanitization of our property in the weeks that followed the closure of our lodge.

How was your business going before the lockdown and then during it?

Before the lockdown, our business was thriving. In fact, it was our strongest high season in terms of numbers of bookings and average length of stay since our opening in October 2016.

The situation that the pandemic created not only ruined our business momentum but also that of everyone we normally interact with: the community-based tourism programme, tour guides, drivers, restaurants and cafes, souvenir shops as well as the suppliers of fruits, vegetables, meats, fish and beverages.

The impact on all our partners and suppliers was huge, since local and international guests stopped coming from one day to the next. Not being able to understand how long this situation would last and what the 'new normal' would look like was an uncertainty of a magnitude we never had to deal with before in our professional and personal lives.

How is the situation now?

On 26 June, we reopened our lodge after local authorities...