SATS and MERS?

Seems like I've been writing quite a few articles on SATS. Previously I last wrote an article about the minor catalyst for SATS - Jetstar. Now, I'm discussing another potential good news for SATS again.

MERS
MERS outbreak in South Korea has been widely reporting for the past few weeks. Although no official travel advisory has been issued by the Korean government nor WHO, we know that thus far the disease seems highly contagious. Whether or not the actual figure is higher than reported in anyone's guesses.

Impact
This recent news says "Travelers from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong cancelled more than 85 percent of the trips, the Korean Tourism Organization said"

I sincerely hope that MERS will stop spreading and the situation in Korea improves very soon.

Korea's largest tourist source country
No surprise, for April 2015, China takes up 46% of Korea's inbound tourists.

2014 first three quarters outbound Chinese tourists

Destinations	Number of Chinese Mainland Tourists
Hong Kong	5,370,884
South Korea	3,546,921
Thailand	2,884,539
Taiwan	2,671,350
Macau	2,434,431
Japan	1,394,203
Singapore	990,159
Malaysia	677,836
Indonesia	646,048

The trickle down effect

It is highly possible that the Chinese will divert their travel plans from Korea to South Asia.

Where does SATS fit in?

Remember what I shared in my previous post?

In-flight caterer/Ground Services - Market Share

Singapore - 80%

Vietnam - 75%

Maldives - 70%

India - 67%

China - 60% 

Japan - 50% in Narita, 40% in Haneda

Hong Kong and Taiwan - 30%

Macau - 100% (only in-flight caterer)

This is, however, all in theory. Still, it's something to think about.

Lastly, let's pray that MERS gets under control soon.