Tourists returning to South Korea as MERS shadow starts to fade

South Korea, one of the popular destinations for Chinese tourists, may see a resurgence in tourism that was badly hit by an outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, thanks to the efforts of two Chinese companies.

Wanda Tourism, a unit of the conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group, and online travel services provider Tongcheng Network Technology Co Ltd on Friday jointly launched a program that will see about 100,000 tourists from China making trips to South Korea within 100 days, starting mid-August.

"We expect the number of Chinese tourists visiting South Korea to recover and reach earlier levels in August," said Xu Daoming, deputy general manager of Wanda Tourism.