InLife offers free life insurance to 110K essential workers

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Insular Life (InLife) will give away free insurance and hospitalization coverage to 110,000 essential workers to help secure them in case they catch the COVID-19 virus. 

Called the “Chain of Protection,” the program will be bankrolled by the Insular Foundation and will be underwritten by InLife. 

“As you know vaccines against COVID-19 have yet to be developed and yet, many of our essential workers continue to serve. We want to extend some form of insurance protection and hospital allowance while they still continue to discharge their duties to the public during the quarantine period,” said InLife Executive Chair Nina D. Aguas. 

Ms. Aguas is also the chairman of Insular Foundation. 

While viral pandemic diseases are exclusions in a standard life insurance policy, InLife created Chain of Protection specifically for this purpose, to assist the vulnerable workers at this time of crisis. 

The free insurance provides life insurance cover of P50,000, if death is due to accident or COVID-19 disease, plus hospital allowance of P500/day (maximum of 10 days) if hospitalized due to accident or COVID-19 disease. The free life insurance and hospitalization allowance coverage is limited to 45 days. 

Chain of Protection is for individuals who work for industries or organizations that provide essential goods or services during the quarantine period. To get the free life insurance, they only need to register to the web link dedicated for this purpose at: 

https://chainofprotection.insularlife.com.ph

The complete list of essential industries under the program can be found there as well. 

“We are now nearing our 110th year, and as a Filipino company, we will always be here for our kababayans. We will continue to support them and even create special products just for them,” added Aguas. 

Record growth at Canva sees new $6B valuation

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Canva today announces a new valuation of US$6 billion from US$3.2 billion, after having raised a US$60 million round.

The doubling in valuation is attributed to Canva’s growing prominence as a workplace collaboration platform fueled by its strong performance in user growth, which continues to accelerate as the world shifts online amidst the global pandemic. Today Canva is embraced by over 30 million people every month to design around the globe, collaborating on presentations, marketing materials, social media content, videos and more -- at a whopping 80 designs per second and a total over 3 billion designs created since launch. 

Canva cofounder and COO Cliff Obrecht said despite the economic downturn as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company continues to see a significant increase in user activity.

“Canva’s accelerated growth is indicative of the “new normal”, as more teams realize the need for a more scalable, more collaborative, more affordable and more user-friendly design platform. 

“Now more than ever, organizations of all sizes are doubling down on building a reliable remote workplace, and are turning to modern productivity platforms like Canva to ensure they remain flexible and scalable.”

Investor Rick Baker from Blackbird, a renowned venture capital firm based in Australia said the surge in Canva’s numbers is a testament to the design platform’s abilities to cater to the changing needs of the modern workplace.

“This round is further evidence that Canva continues to power ahead. In a post-COVID world of remote working, we are seeing Canva’s original vision - a collaborative platform to provide all the elements to create great design - become even more powerful. As a result, Canva has seen phenomenal growth over the past months, cementing its place as one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies in the world.”

Mood Rowghani, general partner at Bond adds, "The recent changes in our world have pressured organizations to embrace new methods of work and collaboration. As the lines between home and office have blurred, Canva's digital design platform is empowering a new wave of productivity and interaction for businesses, schools, and nonprofits across the globe. We have been thrilled to work with the team and are excited about what's to come."

Canva affirms its spot as a powerful workplace collaboration suite

Since launch in late 2019, Canva is the collaboration platform of choice for a number of large organizations to mobilize its workforce to create on brand content.

● More than 500,000 organizations on the platform from Small Businesses to Enterprises such as Warner Music, American Airlines, Ingram Micro, and Eaton

● With more than 90,000 schools and universities worldwide such as the NSW Department of Education in Australia and Georgetown University

● As well as over 55,000 nonprofits such as the World Health Organization, Task Force for Global Health, NHS Charities Together and UN Commission on Human Rights.

Skyscanner, the travel search engine that serves 100 million monthly global users, has used Canva to roll out a full rebrand across 36 markets ― all within six months. 

Skyscanner Senior Design Manager, Judson Cowan said, “The time saved for our design and marketing teams was immense. Canva has allowed us to simultaneously adopt our re-brand across all regions, regardless of timezone, or access to designers. The result was an on-time and well received brand launch, which is rare for large businesses.”

As people continue to collaborate online, design creation and sharing on Canva has increased by over 50% since the start of COVID-19. The company will also be rolling out a number of new workplace collaboration features designed to help teams of all sizes work together, through effective visual communication:

● Canva’s Real-time Collaboration brings teamwork to life by letting users work on designs simultaneously.

● Canva Brainstorms is a new design type built for teams to collaborate simultaneously on notes, build moodboards and flesh out ideas using an infinite canvas space.

● Canva Talking Presentations brings a new way to create engaging presentations by allowing presenters to talk through their slides in an interactive format.

● Canva for Desktop offers a seamless desktop experience, paving the way for offline editing and other native features by the end of the year. 

Cementing Canva’s presence in the US and beyond

As a key growth market for Canva, the company is investing in its US operations with the opening of an office in Austin, Texas. 

The US team will provide strategic support for enterprise clients and nonprofits as the country navigates the “new normal” workplace together, kicking off with its inaugural online Enterprise conference on July 29, Elevate 2020. The conference will feature a keynote from Canva CEO and cofounder, Melanie Perkins, as well as customer panels with HubSpot, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services and IDC Global, to name a few. 

When it comes to furthering international growth, Canva is also open to considering acquisitions whereby it invests in companies for their world-class engineering and product teams.

Cliff explains, “We’re open to investment opportunities in the media and editing space as we continue on our mission to provide a comprehensive and valuable product.

“Ultimately, we want Canva to be the go-to platform for all your design needs, so we’ll continue to monitor and evaluate acquisition opportunities.”

For the latest product news, visit https://www.canva.com/whats-new/

7-Eleven Earmarks 711 Million In Support For Franchisees: Borrow as needed. Pay when able. Interest-free.

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Philippine Seven Corporation (PSC), the exclusive licensor of 7-Eleven in the Philippines, announced their Pandemic Support Program (PSP) during the first online Franchise Town Hall Meeting in early June, and began disbursing funds on June 20. 

Jose Victor Paterno, PSC President and CEO, said, 

“We recognized immediately that the country’s (and the world’s) battle with Covid-19 would be long and painful, so the first thing we did was request our bankers for an increase in our credit lines. Thankfully, they responded quickly and generously, and our next focus became how to deploy this access to capital strategically during the pandemic. The PSP is one such example.”

As of end Q1, the company had Php 6.1B in cash and Php 1.8B in debt. It reported profits of Php 104M from its 2,916 stores. However, due to the pandemic, 22% of its stores were closed as of end April, and 11% as of end May. 

Paterno added,

“We remain highly confident in the worst case that we will get to the other side of this not just intact, but stronger. Aside from our resilient and innovative culture, we can also count on continuing access to debt and capital markets. Others in our ecosystem are not so fortunate, so in the spirit of bayanihan, we need to do our part to get them through this storm.

But don’t get me wrong, we are in the same boat as our franchisees with regard to profitability challenges -- just because you can borrow doesn’t mean you’ll make money, just that you’ll survive for longer until you do. You’ll see when we release our Q2 numbers how profits will be extremely challenging for the foreseeable future. We are cutting costs across the board, including forced leaves, retrenchments, and a freeze on hiring, salary increases, and store openings.” 

Paterno is also calling on landlords to share the pain. 

“Most of our 1,000+ franchisees have to pay rent, and we are doing our part to ensure they survive. We are now asking our landlords to do theirs, because if they do not, the franchisee will have to close the store, as will we for our corporate-run stores. We have a very long list of unprofitable stores right now, and we expect the situation to continue until December at the very least. If and when that happens, expect that space to be vacant for a very long time -- we were going to build 400 new stores this year, but have frozen expansion for the foreseeable future. I believe other chains are in a similar situation.”

According to the contract addendum for the PSP, it was designed so that franchisees would not be out of pocket on a monthly basis, allowing them to draw down on the program’s credit line as needed. If and when the franchisee’s situation improves, he or she commits to paying down the credit line monthly, at zero interest. Should he or she choose to no longer continue as a franchisee, all outstanding balances from the PSP will be forgiven. 

Waldo Abad Santos, Co-Chairperson of the PSC Franchise Advisory Council, said, “Franchisees proudly share the 7-Eleven culture of service in times of crisis, such as typhoons and other natural disasters. But this is no calamity that lasts a week, and many of us were worried where we’d find capital to continue to serve when we were losing so much. Nobody wants to lend it seems, so we are grateful the PSP was launched to enable us to continue serving our communities. When all this is over, PSC’s concrete commitment to long-term partnership is something we franchisees will never forget -- I personally don’t know of any other franchisor supporting its franchisees to this extent.”

When asked why 711M pesos, Paterno said, “Well, we’re prepared to commit around that amount for now, so might as well pick a lucky number so that all this ends quicker than we expect.”

SAVOR THE FOOD ONCE AGAIN AT CENTURY PARK HOTEL MANILA - One of the Finest Hotels in the Metro to Reopen Its Doors for Dine-in

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The COVID-19 pandemic has put everything at a standstill, including being restricted to dining options such as cooking and eating at home, takeout or delivery.   With the government’s recent approval for restaurants to open for dine-in, the long wait for all Century Park Hotel patrons and diners will be over on July 1, 2020.

The food adventure continues with the reopening of the Atrium Lounge. Families and friends can share delightful moments once again in this award-winning dining outlet over their culinary favorites from the hotel’s Café in the Park and Tsukiji Restaurant.

Explore a wide selection of Filipino dishes and international cuisines. For your seafood cravings, try our Grilled Prawns, Pan-fried Salmon Fillet and Blue Marlin Supreme which will definitely reintroduce your palate to the sumptuous and luscious taste – the true mark of Century Park dining experience. Reuniting with your loved ones after several months of staying home will be more heartwarming and filling when spent with our savory platters of meat such as Grilled Lamb Chops, Sirloin Steak Café de Paris and Country Crispy Chicken, among others.

Have an oishi good time with our Japanese gustatory classics from the Century Tsukiji Restaurant. Make your own bento from our scrumptious menu of appetizers, rice meals, grilled and fried dishes. Our yummy special maki and other sushi selections will also satisfy your cravings.

Food gets all the better with the hotel’s elegant setup and homey atmosphere. While reveling in our culinary pleasures, behold the magnificent view of the Grand Staircase and fountain where you can also take some selfies or ‘groufies’.u

The Atrium Lounge will be open daily from 9:00AM to 6:00PM.

Prior to reopening, Century Park Hotel ensured that all diners will get to enjoy dining-in again while maintaining peace of mind.  During the months of lockdown, every corner of the property was thoroughly disinfected, adhering to our commitment to keep our guests safe based on the World Health Organization’s standards.  

The hotel is more than prepared to give you a gustatory treat that is both fancy and sanitary.  Health and safety protocols such as contact tracing, social distancing and wearing of masks will also be enforced.

The tables are all set for this much-awaited day. We cannot wait to serve your orders again and witness delightful moments take shape. Come and dine at Century Park Hotel!

Domestic travel to drive recovery of tourism industry, says survey

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Manila, June 29, 2020 – Domestic travel will lead the recovery of the country’s tourism industry with Filipino travelers expecting to go to destinations closer to home and spending less amid lingering health concerns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is the gist of the results of the recent survey conducted on the pandemic’s effects on domestic and international tourism and on Filipinos’ travel behavior in the new normal.

The Department of Tourism released the report entitled “Philippine Travel Survey: Insights on Filipino Travel Behavior Post-COVID 19” to various tourism stakeholders in a webinar on Monday (June 29).

The key insights of the survey, which was conducted last May among over 12,000 respondents across the country, were:

1. Domestic leisure travel will lead the recovery of Philippine tourism;
2. Majority of travelers expect a reduction of their income and travel budget;
3. Health and safety remains the primary concern of travelers;
4. Travelers prefer reduced-contact activities once leisure travel restrictions are lifted;
5. Travelers prefer online and digital channels for convenience and reduced contact; and
6. Travelers plan to travel close to home.

The survey represents the data-driven efforts of the DOT and tourism stakeholders to restart the local travel industry, which had been gravely affected by restrictions caused by the pandemic.

“We believe in a collaborative approach to recovery,” said Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat. “The survey, which was distributed online, sought the sentiments and concerns that respondents have concerning domestic travel in light of the pandemic, in order to provide insights to tourism enterprises to better prepare, respond, and serve guests and tourists again.”

The travel survey is a joint project of the DOT, the Asian Institute of Management Dr. Andrew L. Tan Center for Tourism, and Guide to the Philippines. It shows how the public, the government, the private sector, and the academe can collaborate for the industry’s eventual recovery, Puyat said.

Domestic leisure travel will be a huge driver

The survey found that domestic travel will lead the recovery of the Philippine travel industry, with 77 percent of respondents expressing their willingness to travel to local destinations once restrictions are lifted. More than half of the respondents also look forward to travel for leisure or vacation, even in the absence of a vaccine against COVID-19.

Popular local tourist spots, especially beaches, are expected to see a surge in visitors. Boracay, Siargao, and Baguio top the list of destinations to visit when travel is permitted again. Filipinos also prefer to travel to destinations closer to home.

The majority of the respondents also prefer activities they deem “safe” with limited face-to-face interaction. Top travel activities that are high on their minds are beach trips, road trips, and staycations at 69, 54, and 41 percent, respectively.

Domestic travel will be the main priority as fewer people are likely to travel internationally in the near future. This is due to reduced incomes and travel budgets in the light of the pandemic’s impact on the economy.

Domestic tourism expenditure expanded from PhP 2.85 trillion in 2018 to PhP 3.14 trillion in 2019. It’s also worth noting that about 10.8% of the 12.7% gross domestic product (GDP) share comes from domestic tourism, making it the biggest contributor to the tourism industry.

The digital shift

Travel plans are also largely going digital, as 72 percent of travelers directly and independently book travel arrangements with establishments online. Nearly half of the respondents will also go with online travel agencies and aggregators.

Channels with reduced contact will become the new norm. Majority of Filipinos are expecting tourism establishments to implement self-service processes such as contactless check-in and digital payments.

Health and safety still travelers’ top priority

Although Filipinos expressed a desire to travel as soon as restrictions are lifted, their main concern is still their health and safety. Many said they would only feel comfortable taking their trips once a reliable anti-COVID-19 vaccine or treatment becomes available, and when the situation in the country gets better.

The pandemic has raised traveler expectations on health and safety, with more than 80 percent of the respondents expecting tourism establishments to follow best practices in sanitation and health. At least 88 percent of respondents also express willingness to comply with existing health and safety protocols, such as undergoing rapid COVID-19 tests prior to departure and submitting a medical certificate before traveling.

Building travelers’ trust and confidence in the industry is vital in ensuring its recovery. The report recommends that establishments and organizations emphasize safety and be transparent in addressing customers’ concerns. It also recommends that tourism stakeholders closely collaborate with other authorities and find ways to innovate and adapt to the new normal—including digital shifts where it is needed—to help manage uncertainties about traveling.

Earlier this month, the DOT released new health and safety guidelines in the new normal to local tourism-related sectors such as hotels, resorts, tourist transportation, surfing and restaurants in anticipation of their reopening.

To read the full report and survey results, click www.guidetothephilippines.ph/ph-travel-survey.