ARTICL: Hong Kongs cruise to nowhere proves a hit with expats stranded by coronavirus travel restrictions Hong Kongs stringent quarantine requirements have created a brand new and growing market for pandemic-battered cruise operator Genting Hong Kong: expats who are unable to travel. In the last month Dream Cruises, one of the lines owned by Genting, has operated 15 cruises to nowhere, taking some 20,000 passengers on two- or three-day round trips into international waters. The current situation of restricted travel has provided us with the opportunity to tap into this market as limited vacation options are giving this demographic group MGT B441F (2021Autumn)_A1 [expats] the chance to try out our product when perhaps they would have normally flown home for the summer, said Kent Zhu, president of Genting Cruise Lines. Before the coronavirus struck, mainland Chinese accounted for about 46 per cent of Gentings passengers, while Hongkongers made up 48 per cent. Of Hong Kongs 7.5 million population, an estimated 10 per cent are expats, giving Genting a base of as many as 750,000 potential customers. Hong Kong was one of the last markets to resume cruise operations, finally allowing ships to set sail in July after the city had fended off wave after wave of Covid-19. In Taiwan, Genting restarted its cruises a year earlier, but had to suspend them recently owing to a surge in cases. Its Singapore operations, meanwhile, have had their capacity capped at levels that depend on the number of local cases at any given time. The Covid-19 pandemic has proven to be a challenging time for all businesses and industries, but has especially impacted the travel and tourism industry, Zhu said. In the coming months, the Delta variant thought to be more contagious than the original strain of Covid-19 could potentially halt the Hong Kong operations again. Dream Cruises will follow the guidance and guidelines of the Hong Kong government and authorities in regards to all protocols regarding Covid-19 rules and regulations including any future procedures concerning the Delta variant if required, Zhu said.

QUESTION1: discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic contextually impacts TWO HRM decisions in firms operating in the cruise industry.

QUESTION2 :Based on the case information and your understanding of cruise industry, discuss TWO outcomes that could measure HR functions effectiveness and how you could measure them? Justify your answers.