The South Korean tourism industry is expected to take a severe heat from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak this year, as foreigners shunned the nation during the summer season following the first case in late May, data showed Tuesday.

The number of inbound travelers is expected to drop 4.6-9.6 percent on-year in 2015, causing a loss in the country's tourism revenue, which will range from 881.5 billion ($784.6 million) to 1.9 trillion won, according to data by the Korea Culture & Tourism Institute.

The number falls behind far behind the government's target of 155 million travelers and 3.72 trillion won in tourism revenue.

The institute said the estimate was based on the decrease of tourists in the wake of the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak in Hong Kong and the 2011 nuclear crisis in Japan.

"It took about a year for the tourism demand to recover to previous levels with Hong Kong's SARS and Japan's nuclear crisis," the KCTI said. "Considering the cases, the number of inbound travelers to South Korea will mark a year-on-year decline in 2015."

The number of travelers who visited South Korea via cruise ships also slipped this year, particularly those from China. 

According to the state-run Korea Tourism Organization, a total of 596,885 travelers entered the nation on cruise ships through August, a 12.5 percent fall from a year earlier.

"Although the cruise trips were hit by the MERS outbreak until August, the number of travelers has recovered to the previous level starting in September," a KTO official said. (Yonhap)