COMPANIES IN S.KOREA SHUT DOWN OVER VIRUS

[Anchor Lead]

More and more companies in South Korea are shutting down amid the coronavirus pandemic. Five star hotels and duty free stores have temporarily closed their doors, while some airlines are suspending domestic flights.

[Pkg]

The Grand Walkerhill Seoul hotel, run by a a big corporation has closed off 400 rooms for one month. It marks the first such decision for a five-star hotel. The hotel said the closure is to prevent the further spread of COVID-19, but it has already been incurring losses due to the outbreak. The occupancy rate at 7 major hotels has plunged from 70 percent to the 5 percent range in just 2 months. Smaller hotels are in a bigger crisis, with some even thinking of closing business for good. Hotel cleaning staff who are non-regular workers believe their livelihood is at stake.

[Soundbite] JEON JOO-HWAN(KOREAN FEDERATION OF TOURIST & SERVICE INDUSTRY WORKER'S UNIONS) : "Small hotels have shut down completely with employees claiming unemployment benefits. There is no end in sight."

Here, the gates are sealed with a steel barrier and there's no-one to be seen. This is Lotte Duty Free, Korea's number one duty free store. As sales are plummeting below one million won per day, its Gimpo airport branch closed from March 12th and its Gimhae airport store closed this week.

[Soundbite] KIM HYEON-GOO(LOTTE DUTY FREE) : "The number of departing passengers has plunged to 150-160 so we decided to temporarily close."

With a growing number of duty free stores closing down, excluding those at Incheon International Airport, some employees are forced to take unpaid leave.

[Soundbite] (DUTY FREE STORE CLERK(VOICE MODIFIED)) : "We can't reject unpaid leave because all our coworkers are doing the same."

Budget airline Eastar Jet has even suspended domestic flights for one month. Its final flight connecting Jeju and Gimpo flew yesterday evening. The airline's CEO said he tried to seek various countermeasures including a request for government aid, but the firm is now not even able to pay its employees. Eastar Jet is the first airline to halt both international and domestic flights. Concerns are growing as it's only a matter of time before other carriers start to follow suit.