South Korea touts deep travel discounts for Hongkongers following deadly Mers outbreak there
Hongkongers snap up discounted flights and hotel rooms as Seoul tries to jump start tourism industry devastated by outbreak of disease
South Korean officials yesterday unveiled a strategy to lure back Hong Kong tourists with discounts and gifts, after the outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers) caused a 75 per cent drop in the number of visitors from the city last month.
The Korea Tourism Organisation said 13,949 tourists visited from Hong Kong last month, down from 54,884 in the same month last year.
South Korea declared earlier this week that the outbreak of the virus that killed 36 people in the country was virtually over. To revive an economy hurt by the outbreak, the Seoul government said it would spend 22 trillion won (HK$145 billion) on a stimulus package.
With no new Mers cases reported in South Korea since July 3, the Hong Kong government has said it would consider dropping its travel warning against the country, in place since June 9.
To bring back tourists, the organisation has partnered with Expedia, an American online travel agent, to offer a HK$300 discount for the first 3,500 customers to buy South Korea travel packages on the website from today until the end of August.
"Fortunately, there has been no new cases for 25 days. I would like to declare Korea is now completely safe," said Steve Lee Soo-taek, the executive director of the organisation's Hong Kong office. "Everything is back to normal. We finally came out of Mers. Anyone who joins tours to Korea departing in August and September shall get a special gift. Besides this, we will cooperate with airline companies to release discounted flight tickets."
Lee expressed hope that Hong Kong would lift its travel alert by next week, saying it "doesn't only hurt the Korean market, it also hurts the Hong Kong market".
Lee said he expected the South Korean tourism figures would get back to normal by October. He said the organisation chose to partner with Expedia because it wanted to attract more foreign independent travellers.
Expedia, which has been tracking travel patterns of Hongkongers, estimated it lost more than HK$10 million in revenue from air tickets and hotel bookings that went unsold because of Mers. It said the number of people searching for Korea on its website last month dropped nearly 70 per cent, to 34,887 searches from 114,064 in May. But the search rate recovered this month.
"Mers didn't stop Hongkongers from travelling. We saw a rise in searches for Taiwan and Japan in June," said June Tsang Yuen-yee, Expedia's Hong Kong marketing manager.
Tsang said a three-day Korea tour package, including accommodation and air fare, cost around HK$2,100 on its website. With the new discount, it now costs around HK$1,800, equivalent to a 14 per cent reduction.
Some local tourists are already jumping at the discounted fares and hotels. According to the Travel Industry Council, at least 600 had already signed up for the 50 or so low-price tours scheduled to depart next week.
Hong Thai Travel Services said that since South Korea declared itself essentially Mers-free, more than 300 people had been signing up for tours there each day.
To boost sales, Hong Thai has also launched discounted tours. The price of a five-day trip to Seoul has been slashed by more than 30 per cent, to HK$1,999 from HK$2,999. Korea tour package prices are now 30 to 50 per cent cheaper than what they had been in May, the travel agency said.
