China's two large travel agencies have begun a campaign to send 100,000 tourists to Korea within 100 days from now.
It is likely the number of Chinese tourists to rise rapidly after falling abruptly following Middle East respiratory syndrome erupted in June and July. According to the China Daily on July 26, Wanda Travel and online travel agency Tongcheng Network Technology, both under Dalian Wanda Group, will jointly hold a campaign to recruit tourists to go to Korea from mid-August. A Wanda Group official said, "By that time, we expect the number of tourists going to Korea will recover the pre-MERS level."
Wanda Group, China's largest commercial property company and the world's largest cinema chain operator, has scores of affiliate travel agencies in 12 Chinese cities. Tongcheng is an online travel agency based in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province.
Due to MERS, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Korea in June fell 45 percent from the same month last year. As there is no more confirmed patient for the past 21 days, however, the figure has slowly gained. Ma Heping, president of Tongcheng, said, "The number of reservations to Korea was fewer than 10 at the peak of MERS but the figure rose to more than 300 this week."
According to Ctrip.com, China's largest online travel agency, the number of tourists who made a reservation to Korean trips has doubled for the first two weeks this month from the same period last month. An official with Ctrip said, "It seems the fears about MERS have disappeared among Chinese people and we are getting an average of 100 reservations a day."
