Rising COVID-19 cases in South Korea scare away shoppers, tourists from China
The deteriorating epidemic situation in South Korea has scared away shoppers and tourists and worried Chinese students after the country reported 833 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and eight deaths as of Monday night.
Crystal, a Chinese shopper based in Langfang, North China’s Hebei Province who has been a professional purchasing agent for years, told the Global Times the emerging epidemic in South Korea has ended the job.
“I usually go to South Korea once a month to buy cosmetics but this annoying coronavirus kept us home. My current stocks would be sold out in days,” Crystal said, noting the purchases from South Korea would earn her about 20,000 yuan ($2,844) every month.
The coronavirus hit the outbound professional purchasing business hard and many have switched to other businesses, Crystal said. “We cannot go out of China right now and I’m also scared to get infected in South Korea,” another shopping agent said.
The flights between China and South Korea have been significantly reduced due to the impact of the epidemic. Air carriers including Korean Air have called off flights to Wuhan and reduced flights to other Chinese cities untill March, the Yonhap News Agency reported.
Outbound tourism to South Korea has seen a sharp drop due to the impact of the coronavirus and the group-travel suspension by the China Association of Travel Services in January, industry experts told the Global Times.
Travel agents have stayed at home for weeks as no overseas group tours are allowed. Individual tourism to South Korea also has largely dropped as the epidemic in the country worsens, said a tourism agent based in Beijing surnamed Wang.
Outbound tourism is expected to recover in the latter half of the year, she said.
The epidemic clearly affected Chinese students studying in the neighboring nation as well. A junior student at Sangmyung University in Seoul, surnamed Liu, said that her school has asked Chinese students to complete a 14-day quarantine before class starts on March 16, which means she has to set off before March 1.
“My family and I are considering if I need to apply for a suspension for the next quarter.”
South Korean education ministry advised Chinese students who have not yet bought air tickets to South Korea to suspend studies this semester and promised to relax credit restrictions for them.