"Maintaining Employment is Difficult" 4,914 Travel and Tourism Companies Apply for Support Funds... 17 Times More than MERS

On the 6th, the travel agency counters on the 3rd floor of Terminal 1 departure hall at Incheon International Airport are quiet. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] A total of 4,914 domestic travel and tourism companies have applied for employment retention support funds. Due to the increased business difficulties caused by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the number of applicants has increased 17 times compared to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak in 2015.

According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on the 14th, since travel and tourism accommodation industries were designated as special employment support sectors due to COVID-19, a total of 4,919 companies have applied for employment retention support funds. During the MERS outbreak, 294 companies had applied.

Travel agencies flocked to the unsecured special loans prepared to support the tourism industry. From the end of February to the 10th of this month, 1,421 applications amounting to 82.9 billion KRW were received from the 100 billion KRW unsecured special loan fund. Among these, 37.9 billion KRW (702 cases) were disbursed, resulting in a disbursement rate of 45.7% based on the amount.

In the case of unsecured special loans, travel agencies mainly benefited. Of the total disbursed cases, 82.2% by number and 77.4% by amount went to the travel industry. The special loans created using the tourism fund provide support without collateral based on credit guarantees from public institutions for small and medium tourism companies with weak collateral capacity.

Regarding the deferral of repayment for tourism fund loans, out of the total support scale of 200 billion KRW, 153.9 billion KRW (682 cases) have been disbursed, with most applications coming from the hotel industry (134.3 billion KRW) which received deferrals. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism stated, "Personnel have recently been supplemented to accelerate the disbursement of special loans," and added, "The special loans are expected to be fully exhausted by mid-May, and the tourism fund repayment deferrals by the end of this month."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.