MERS has minimal impact on MICE: HRS
By Staff Reporter
22 Jun 2015
There have been more cancellations than bookings for flights to South Korea over the past week as the country continues to battle its outbreak of MERS.
According to ForwardKeys’ latest figures for the week of June 6-12, net bookings – derived from the total number of bookings for the week minus cancellations – plunged by 188 per cent from North East Asia and by 131 per cent from the rest of Asia, while net bookings for all other continents fell by over 60 per cent.
Despite this, HRS Corporate managing director Asia-Pacific, Todd Arthur, says the MERS outbreak will have minimal impact on business travel and corporate bookings.
“While the ongoing MERS health scare is having some impact on the level of leisure travel to South Korea, we’ve yet to see a significant negative impact on corporate travel to the country. In terms of hotel bookings, there haven’t been a large number of cancellations.”
Arthur was in Seoul last week as part of the Travelport LIVE Conference and says, despite the outbreak, the event was well-attended.
“Government agencies in Korea have been handling the crisis reasonably well, working quickly and in an open and transparent manner to bring the situation under control.”
A spoksperson for HRS Corporate Asia-Pacific told CEI Asia they have not yet received any cancellations for MICE bookings in South Korea.
In a bid to reassure travellers, South Korea’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism has announced that foreign visitors will be automatically insured against the risk of contracting MERS in the country, though the extent of coverage or when the plan will go into effect has not been revealed.
There are 169 confirmed cases of MERS in South Korea and 25 deaths from the disease.