As South Korea continues to battle its outbreak of MERS, it has seen more cancellations than bookings for flights recently. According to the latest figures from ForwardKeys, a provider of travel intelligence, for the week of June 6–12, net bookings decreased 188 per cent from Northeast Asia and 131 per cent from the resort of Asia, while net bookings for all other continents fell by more than 60 per cent.

During the same period, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China also experienced high cancellations, with declines in net bookings at 329 per cent, 298 per cent and 182 per cent, respectively. Japan is the only country in Asia that has experienced a rise in net bookings.

Despite these high cancellation percentages, a recent outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome is having a minimal impact on corporate and business trips, according to Todd Arthur, managing director Asia-Pacific, HRS Corporate, the leading global hotel solutions provider.

“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,” said Arthur. “In terms of hotel bookings, there haven’t been a large number of cancellations.”

Arthur was in Seoul earlier this month for the Travelport LIVE Conference. Despite the outbreak of the viral respiratory illness, Arthur reported 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,” said Arthur.

To reassure travellers, South Korea’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced foreign visitors are automatically insured against the risk of contracting MERS in the country. As of press time, there were 172 confirmed cases of MERS in South Korea and 27 fatalities.

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