Seoul to aid MERS-hit tourism

Seoul City vowed Thursday to put its utmost efforts into revitalizing the tourism industry that was hit by the Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said it would inject over 23 billion won ($20 million) to boost the tourism industry until this fall, with a particular goal of attracting Chinese visitors, who account for the majority of Korea’s tourists.

Under the slogan of “Now is the time, Visit Seoul,” the city will arrange various tourist events here until October, including fireworks festivals and hallyu concerts. It will also provide a number of promotional discounts, officials said.

As part of the promotion measures, the city said it would provide support for Chinese media to film entertainment programs at Korean tourist spots, they said. 

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon will visit Chinese travel agencies as part of his “tourism sales trip” to China next month. 

Later this month, Park will also become a one-day special tour guide for about 400 Chinese private travel agency officials in Seoul. The Chinese travel agency representatives were invited by two Korean major airliners Korean Air and Asiana Airlines.

The move came after Seoul City has seen a sharp decline of visitors since MERS broke out.

According to the state-run Korea Tourism Organization, the number of foreign visitors in June halved on-year to about 600,000. More than 130,000 tourists also canceled their trips in June.

The travel package booking rate also plummeted by over 80 percent this summer, data from the Korea Association of Travel Agents showed. Only about 200,000 foreign visitors reserved their travel plans for July and August, down 82 percent from a year ago. KATA estimated a loss of more than 108 billion won.

The numbers of visitors from China and Japan both dropped by over 80 percent to about 132,000 and 28,000, respectively.

Earlier this month, the mayor had pledged to put revitalizing the tourism industry as the top priority.

“If the current tourism business trend continues, it will destructively hit the overall economy. There’s an urgent need to revive the industry by Chuseok (a major holiday) in the fall,” he said in a press conference on July 1. “This cannot be solely accomplished by the city. Seoul City will work with the central government and the industry.”

In order to secure the budget for the new measures, the city said it would request the city council to allow for a supplementary fund of 16 billion won. The remaining 7 billion won has already been secured, the city said.

By Lee Hyun-jeong (rene@heraldcorp.com)