While the pandemic lasts, HTMi is expected to have a burn rate of $100,000 a month. This comprises rental, salaries and utilities. The fees per student — depending on the courses and whether they are local or foreign — range between $6,000 to $12,000 a year.
Wong Fong Industries, the engineering firm that has diversified into education and training, has done the easy part of acquiring private higher education institute Hotel and Tourism Management Institute (HTMi), said to rank among the top 20 hotel schools in the world.
However, tourism and travel has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and has affected HTMi’s intake of students. At present, because of the pandemic, HTMi only has 20 students. It needs around 100 to 120 to break even. Although its full capacity is about 600 in a given year, travel restrictions may limit student intake.
