SARS Sinks, Go For China Again!

A boom in China is rejuvenating with the breakdown of the fearful disease SARS. Airline and traveling industries are welcoming this turnaround in the tourism economy with more passengers and tourists going toward China.

Korea Airline announced on July 23rd that it would recover most of its air routes between Guang Zhou and Shanghai and between Inchon and Wu Han, which were suspended during the SARS period.

An average load factor of the Airline had declined continuously to 64.8 percent in March, 48.9 percent in April and 36.7 percent in May due to the SARS effect. But, the load factor has risen to 64.7 percent in June and 66.6 percent in July (from 1st through 5th.) Especially, the route between Inchon and Beijing was taken by the high rate of 95 percent of passengers.

China travel boom has yet to revive itself. However, tourists to Chinese major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have significantly risen and many travel agencies are applying “highest season fees” for people eliminating their previous “discount rates” during the SARS period.

With the disappearance of the epidemic, each and every local investment group is scrambling to Korea.

According to the Korea Trade Association, none of those groups could come to Korea from April to June, but the number is increasing greatly from this month. On July 10th and 14th, two cities in San Dong area sent an investment delegation of 30 to 40 people to Korea.

China Trade Director at the Association Hwang Kyu-hwang said, “There are some 20 local self-governing institutes in China that would start investment-attracting activities in cooperation with the Association. And there are also a lot of other Chinese institutes that contacts other private corporations in Korea to keep up with the “Rush to Korea” this year.”

The Korea Trade Association and Korea Importers Association plan to send their purchasing delegation to China four times in the latter half of this year starting from late August, which was originally to happen in April or May but had to be delayed due to SARS.

Most Korean businesses including LG Electronics has lifted their restrictive measures for business trips to China since last month.

Korean exports to China are also rising from 2.479 billion dollars in May to 2.62 billion dollars as the economic exchange front between the two nations has overcome the disease.

Ja-Ryong Koo bonhong@donga.com