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| SK Networks CEO Moon Jong-hoon, center, poses with Yao Xaomin, second from right, president of People's Daily Overseas Edition, after discussing ways to boost exchanges between Korea and China at the Chinese newspaper's building in Beijing, Monday. SK China CEO Sun Ziqiang, left, and Kim Young-gwang, right, executive vice president of SK Group's global growth committee, also attended the meeting. / Courtesy of SK Group |
By Lee Hyo-sik
SK Group has launched a "Visit-Korea" campaign in China to help attract more visitors from the mainland to prop up the country's tourism industry, reeling from the adverse effects of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
Korea's third-largest conglomerate dispatched heads of its tourism-related units to the world's second largest economy, Monday, on a mission to lure Chinese tourists back.
SK Networks CEO Moon Jong-hoon, Kim Young-gwang, executive vice president of SK Group's global growth committee, and others held meetings with the CEO of the People's Daily Overseas Edition and senior executives from Baidu, China's largest web portal.
SK Networks operates a duty free shop, a hotel and other businesses catering to Chinese and other foreign visitors.
SK officials asked the People's Daily to run stories favorable to Korea as a tourist destination, and Baidu to post more positive messages about visiting Asia's fourth-largest economy, the group said.
The latest visit by SK Group senior managers is seen as a move to help revitalize Korea's sagging tourism industry, which has been hit hard by the declining number of foreign tourists since the first MERS case was reported in early June.
Many flights between Korea and China have been canceled because Chinese tourists were reluctant to come here for fear of contracting MERS. China suffered from a large-scale outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2003.
Rather than come to Korea, many Chinese have visited Japan instead on the back of the weak yen and the Japanese government's aggressive campaign to attract Chinese tourists.
"SK Group has been making every effort to improve relations between Korea and China over the years," Moon said in a meeting with Yao Xaomin, president of the People's Daily Overseas Edition. "In 2008 when the strong earthquake struck Sichuan Province, Group Chairman Chey Tae-won visited the quake-damaged province and led a rescue mission when most foreign companies evacuated from the area."
SK has contributed to improving Korea's ties with China, the CEO said, saying that its business in China has flourished on the strong mutual trust between the two sides.
"Korean health authorities have been able to contain the MERS outbreak in cooperation with the medical community and the public. Things have returned to normal," Moon told Xaomin and the daily's other senior managers. "The travel industry has made all the necessary preparations to ensure the safety of foreign visitors. Korea needs Chinese media outlets and web portals to tell the public that it is safe to travel to Korea."
In response, Xaomin said the newspaper will do its part to boost private-sector exchanges between the two countries, according to SK Group.
At home, SK Group has already been implementing a wide range of measures to help spur sluggish domestic consumption over the past month.
The group launched a blood donation campaign as hospitals face increasing difficulties in securing enough blood. People became reluctant to go to medical institutions to donate blood because MERS infections occurred mostly at large hospitals and clinics.
SK employees who donated blood received a gift certificate worth 100,000 won, which can be used at traditional markets.
"The MERS outbreak hit tourism, hotels, restaurants and other hospitality-related businesses hard in particular, and sent shockwaves across the industry," an SK Group spokesman said. "As a responsible corporate citizen, we have initiated a blood donation campaign and engaged in many activities abroad to bring more foreign tourists to the country. We will do more to help the economy recover."
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