South Korea pledged Monday to provide emergency financial support for the local tourism and hospitality industries to help them tide over difficulties stemming from a Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said it will provide 72 billion won ($64.1 million) in soft loans for 17 tourism sectors reeling from the fallout of the MERS outbreak, which has claimed 16 lives and sickened 150 people.

The ministry also offered to supplement partial wages of employees who take paid leave as a growing number of foreigners canceled their trips here scheduled for the peak summer season.

Since the first outbreak of MERS on May 20, over 100,000 foreigners have called off their trips to South Korea, mostly from China and Hong Kong, according to the state-run Korea Tourism Organization.

The Chinese are South Korea's biggest tourist group, with the number of travelers from the nation surpassing 6 million for the first time in 2014.

To assure foreign visitors, the government is set to launch travel insurance programs that guarantee treatment and refund of travel expenses if foreigners become infected with MERS during their stay here.

"The government and the industry will put concerted efforts to revive the travel industry by minimizing the effect of MERS on the tourism market," the ministry said.

During his visit to the Incheon International Airport, Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan on Sunday expressed concerns over the impact of MERS on the tourism and retailers and vowed to ramp up support for industries hit hardest by the disease. (Yonhap)