medical tourism companies in south korea

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SEOUL GUIDE MEDICAL

Beauty and medical service at its finest.

• How It Works

1. DISCOVER

Contact us and get a customized treatment plan

Choose your medical procedures and get ready for Korea

3. CONGRATULATIONS

We meet you in Korea, take care of everything for you

Analyze your skin and get treatments to make you shine

Find the best doctors, clinics and get a personalized consultation

Everything from medical check ups to transplants and more

Get a perfect smile in as little as just one day!

See better today, live better today

REAL PATIENTS

See our patients and their dreams turned into reality

Buy the products which are perfect for after care

Testimonials

What our patients say about us.

“For the past 3 years, I have used Seoul Guide Medical to take care of my teeth, my skin and I chose them to help me with my Rhinoplasty as well! They fixed my broken nose from my bike accident,” Xander England

“SGM has helped me get all kinds of treatments here in Seoul and they take care of all my international friends. Whenever anyone needs a clinic, I point them to SGM first. They are trustworthy and there is no one more knowledgeable. They are best for a reason. SGM, thank you!” Amy Aleha Canada

“I am from Saudi Arabia and many of the gulf region embassies ask me to advise medical tourism patients coming from abroad. I always send them to SGM because I trust them 100%. For years they have taken care of hundreds of our people with excellent results. ” Yaser Khalifa Saudi Arabia

“I had upper and lower eye blepharoplasty, lower eye fat repositioning, double chin lipo, arm lipo, 360 tummy lipo, leg lipo and a tummy tuck. It all turned out so well! They even accepted my request to have this video recorded as I want to show other brave men and women about my journey. ” Susan James Canada

” I was recommended to SGM through my embassy for skin treatment and I am so happy they did! I was very scared because I can’t speak Korean well yet but they took care of me and made it so easy. I asked so many questions and they answered everything. Enji Eldev Mongolia

#1 Medical Tourism Provider

We only work with the best doctors and top-rated hospitals in Seoul, as we have insider knowledge and relationships with all of them and the Seoul Metropolitan Government. We are fully licensed, and all our partner hospitals guarantee their work. From airport pick up, to help with transportation, to securing accommodations, and any problem you have, we will be with you every step of the way, this is our guarantee!

How Does It Work?

We Are Featured On

American news media NBC Washington created a 2 part series on Seoul Guide Medical and plastic surgery in Korea. As Korea’s medical tourism leader, Seoul Guide Medical was chosen for this special report.

Seoul Guide Medical was chosen by Forbes Magazin as the top medical tourism company from almost 1700 companies in Korea as the leader in this industry.

Canadian News

The Canadian news company chose Seoul Guide Medical as the most trusted name in Korean medical tourism.

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SGM does not accept walk-in patients at our office. If you wish to have a consultation, you must have an online consultation first.

COLLABORATION & CAREER

• Before & After

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Your Beauty and Health journey starts here

Based in the heart of South Korea, Medictel is your personal guide to top-tier clinics to get beauty treatments and medical care.

Years of Experience

Happy Patients

Programs & Trainings

How it works

Discover how easy your journey to health and beauty is with us, as we guide you through each step from initial consultation to your return home, offering our personalized services FREE of charge.

Consultation

Reach out to us on our contact page for a free discussion about your medical and beauty needs.

Personalized Plan

We'll craft a tailored plan including the right procedures, schedules, and travel arrangements, just for you.

Preparation

Prepare for your journey with our guidance and support to ensure you're fully ready.

Arrival in South Korea

When you arrive, our medical coordinator will welcome you and escort you to your accommodation.

Experience top-tier medical treatments at our partner clinics, with our team ensuring you have everything you need.

"> "> Follow-up and Departure

We'll stay connected for post-treatment care, schedule any necessary follow-ups, and arrange your comfortable return home.

Procedures & Treatments

Dive into our diverse range of procedures, offering best beauty treatments and medical care tailored to your needs, all at our partner clinics in South Korea.

Plastic Surgery

Health Treatment

Body Check-up

Medictel is your top choice for medical tourism in South Korea. We’re a trusted partner, certified by the government, committed to providing excellent services and expert guidance on your journey to health and beauty.

Free Services

Our dedicated services come at no extra cost : you only pay for your treatments.

All-in-One Service

Let us handle the details : from managing appointments to arranging accommodation, we make your medical journey worry-free.

Personalized for You

We personalize your journey to meet your unique needs, from selecting the right procedures to arranging your stay

Experienced and Certified

Trust in our decade of experience and government certification, having helped over 1,000 patients

Testimonials

Our Partners

Frequently Asked Questions

Got questions about your journey with us? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions to find quick answers. 

Book your free consultation

Ready to start your journey to health and beauty with MEDICTEL?

  [Visit Medical Tourism in Korea] Center of Medical Excellence

Collaboration, convenience, cosmopolitan, seoul medical tour help desk.

서울관광재단에서 창작한 저작물은 "공공누리" 출처표시 조건에 따라 이용 할 수 있습니다.

DESTINATION

Brief Introduction to Korea and Its Reputation in Medical Tourism

South Korea, often simply known as Korea, is a country located on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. Over the past decade, the nation has emerged as a global leader in medical tourism, attracting international patients with its advanced healthcare system, state-of-the-art technology, and highly skilled medical professionals. With medical centers that adhere to international standards and a government that heavily supports the growth of the medical tourism industry, Korea offers a blend of quality healthcare and cultural richness, making it an attractive destination for medical tourists.

Historical and Cultural Significance in Medicine

Korea has a rich history in the field of medicine, with its traditional medicine known as "Hanbang," which dates back several thousand years. This system incorporates herbal medicine, acupuncture, and dietetics, among other modalities. While the country has fully embraced Western medicine and technology, the wisdom and practices of traditional medicine continue to influence modern healthcare. Many hospitals offer holistic treatment plans that integrate both Western and traditional Korean medicine.

Reputation and Recognition

Internationally, Korea has garnered a reputation for excelling in complex procedures such as organ transplants, cosmetic surgery, and cancer treatments. It is home to some of the best hospitals in the world, often equipped with cutting-edge technology and specialized care units. The government also has a strong focus on research and development, making Korea one of the most advanced countries in healthcare innovation.

Importance for Medical Tourists

For medical tourists, Korea presents an opportunity to access world-class healthcare services at competitive prices. Alongside medical care, patients often take the chance to explore the rich cultural tapestry of the country, ranging from its historic sites to its contemporary marvels. With a relatively low language barrier and high standards of patient care, Korea is not just a destination for healthcare but also for holistic well-being.

Popular Medical Procedures

List and brief descriptions.

• Cosmetic Surgery : Korea is known as the plastic surgery capital of the world. Procedures like rhinoplasty, blepharoplasty, and breast augmentation are commonly sought after.
• Orthopedic Surgery : Spinal surgeries and joint replacements are expertly handled, often using minimally invasive techniques.
• Cancer Treatments : Offering cutting-edge oncology services, Korea provides treatments like targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and advanced surgical interventions.
• Organ Transplant : Specializing in kidney, liver, and heart transplants, Korean medical facilities offer comprehensive transplant services.

Specializations or Pioneering Treatments

Korea is at the forefront of medical research and has made significant advances in stem cell therapy, robotic surgery, and telemedicine. Some of the pioneering treatments offered include "gamma knife" surgery for treating brain tumors and other abnormalities.

Top Hospitals & Clinics

Renowned hospitals and clinics.

• Seoul National University Hospital
• Asan Medical Center
• Samsung Medical Center
• Yonsei University Severance Hospital

Accreditation and Affiliation

Most top-tier hospitals are accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI) or have received accreditation from national bodies. Many are also affiliated with prestigious universities and research institutions.

Special Features, Awards, or Recognitions

Several Korean hospitals have received global recognition for their cutting-edge technology and patient care, winning awards for their innovative treatments and research contributions.

Cost Comparison

Comparative data.

The cost of medical procedures in Korea is competitive when compared to Western countries. For example, a typical rhinoplasty may cost between $3,000 and $8,000 in Korea, compared to $10,000 or more in the United States.

Price Ranges

While prices can vary depending on the hospital and the complexity of the procedure, patients can generally expect to save between 30% and 60% compared to costs in Western countries.

Quality & Safety

Medical standards and practices.

South Korea's healthcare system is renowned for its high standards. The country's medical facilities are equipped with cutting-edge technology and are staffed by professionals who often receive training both domestically and internationally. Quality of care is comparable to, or even exceeds, that of Western nations in many specialties.

Accreditation Systems, Regulatory Bodies, and Quality Checks

Most top-tier hospitals in Korea are accredited by global and domestic accrediting bodies, ensuring that they meet international healthcare standards. Regulatory bodies such as the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare oversee healthcare services and regularly audit medical institutions for quality assurance.

Patient Safety Protocols and Rights

Korea places a high emphasis on patient safety, with protocols in place that range from infection control measures to secure data management. Patients also have a legally protected right to confidentiality and informed consent, safeguarding their interests at every stage of medical intervention.

Medical Visa Information

Guidelines and requirements.

Most countries will require a visa for entry into South Korea. While a regular tourist visa may suffice for short-term medical treatments, a specific medical visa is advisable for extended stays or complex procedures. The medical visa, usually classified under the C3-3 visa category, allows for longer stays and multiple entries.

Duration, Documentation, and Application Process

The medical visa can be extended up to one year and often takes approximately one to two weeks for approval. Documentation such as a letter from the medical institution, medical records, and proof of financial means are usually required. An application can be submitted through the nearest Korean consulate or embassy.

Travel Advisories or Restrictions

Always check for any travel advisories or restrictions related to health, geopolitical situations, or the COVID-19 pandemic. Staying updated will help you plan your trip more effectively.

Cultural Considerations

Local customs and etiquette.

Understanding Korean cultural norms like bowing and removing shoes indoors can enhance your experience. Showing respect to elders and avoiding direct eye contact during conversations are also considered polite behaviors.

Language and Communication

While English is not the native language, it is widely understood in medical settings. Many top hospitals have interpreters and international patient centers to assist foreign patients.

Dietary Considerations

Korean cuisine is varied, but it can be heavy on spices and fermented foods. Those with dietary restrictions should inform the medical staff in advance.

Travel & Accommodation

Popular areas to stay.

Gangnam and Myeongdong in Seoul are popular places to stay given their proximity to major hospitals and clinics. These areas also offer various shopping and dining options.

Proximity to Medical Facilities

Most recommended accommodations are within a 20-30 minute drive to major medical facilities, making it convenient for patients and their families.

Transportation and Infrastructure

South Korea has a well-developed public transportation system. Medical facilities are easily accessible by subway, bus, or taxi.

Post-procedure Relaxation and Recuperation

Jeju Island is a popular destination for relaxation with its serene beaches and natural beauty, providing an ideal atmosphere for post-procedure recuperation.

Legal & Ethical Considerations

Legal rights of patients.

Patients have the legal right to informed consent, second opinions, and confidentiality, among others. The Korean Patient Charter of Rights and Responsibilities outlines these rights comprehensively.

Medical Malpractice Laws

Medical malpractice laws in Korea are stringent, offering a legal pathway for patients to seek compensation or corrective treatment in the event of a medical error.

Ethical Considerations

Ethical considerations are consistent with global standards. Issues like organ sourcing adhere to strict ethical guidelines and regulations.

Benefits & Risks

Patients seeking medical treatment in Korea benefit from cutting-edge technology, high standards of care, and specialized expertise. The cost-effectiveness of treatments is another significant advantage.

Language and cultural barriers, while minimal, do exist. Additionally, the legal process for medical disputes might differ from your home country, which could be a potential risk.

Post-procedure Care

Post-operative care and rehabilitation centers.

Most Korean hospitals offer exemplary post-operative care, with several also providing rehabilitation services. The country is home to specialized rehabilitation centers that focus on helping patients recover more effectively.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

• Is English spoken widely in Korean medical facilities?

Yes, English is commonly spoken in major hospitals, and translation services are usually available.

• How do I choose the right hospital or clinic?

Research and consult with medical professionals to find a facility that specializes in the treatment you require.

• What payment methods are accepted?

Most hospitals accept insurance and various forms of payment including cash, credit cards, and even international wire transfers.

• Is it safe to travel alone?

South Korea is considered a safe country, but it's always advisable to have a companion, especially when undergoing significant medical procedures.

Global Provider Members

51.23 million

The South Korean climate is temperate with four distinct seasons that coincide with the northern part of the United States: spring, summer, fall, and winter. The monsoon and typhoon seasons run from late June to late August, in which the country gets 60 percent of its annual rainfall. During that time, when it’s not raining, the weather is hot and humid, with an average July temperature ranging from 72-77 degrees Fahrenheit (22-25 degrees Celsius).

Facilitators

Seoul, Korea

Seoul, South Korea

Dobong-gu, Korea

Seoul , Korea

Featured Treatments

MedicalTourism.com

MedicalTourism.com is a free, confidential, independent resource for patients and industry providers. Our mission is to provide a central portal where patients, medical tourism providers, hospitals, clinics, employers, and insurance companies can all find the information they need. Our site focuses on patients looking for specific knowledge in the fields of medical tourism, dental tourism, and health tourism.

Plastic Surgery Trips to South Korea +82-1661-2993

Who are we.

Licensed Medical Tourism Agency in Korea

Seoul TouchUp is a government-approved medical tourism agency in Korea. We are one of the few government-approved medical tourism agencies in South Korea.

Over the years, Seoul TouchUp has rewritten the definition of 'medical travel agency'. Being a full one-stop medical service provider, now, we are also a "beauty consulting & tourism company" for those who want to come to South Korea for cosmetic plastic surgery.

Beauty Consulting? Why is it needed?

Having plastic surgery should be your once-in-your-life decision and let professionals guide you to make it more perfect. It is definitely not the simplest of decisions to make, even more so when there is an abundance of plastic surgery clinics and agencies sprawled throughout Korea claiming to be the "best". Which one really lives up to its name, which will you trust and go forward with your decision? Well. How did we help more than hundreds of clients for the past years?

Enter the SEND approach.

Seoul TouchUp's SEND Approach

S afe -Medical tourism comes with its risks. We will stand for you and speak for you even in unexpected situations when you are here in Korea.

E asy - Save time and worry by entrusting your life-changing beauty trip to the experts, we will aid you on your search for the best of the best.

N ot expensive - Take advantage of our affordable packages. You can find your money's worth with our reasonable prices.

D edicated - You are not going to be here, alone. Our medical tourism coordinators will be guiding you, in and out of the clinics.

Likewise, we can help you to access the right medical practitioners and doctors, give advise on the best possible route to take, identify fair and unfair prices -- so you won't be getting the short end of the stick!

We combine leisure and peaceful recuperation in your complete anonymity as you will be away from the pressures of daily life. Let Seoul TouchUp guide you in a seamless, hassle-free management where we will care for you from the start to finish of your trip.

What You Can Get Out of Seoul TouchUp

Premium Arrangement

We will contact the clinics, and help you get more attention and care from them

Customised Packages

Jump-start your plastic surgery with various TouchUp travel plans

VIP Privacy

Get the celebrity-level privacy protection and safety

Community Support

Ask the experts today at our plastic surgery forum

TouchUp Promotions

Discount Coupon, Promotional Emails, Forum Points & Many More

Seoul TouchUp Medical Tourism Coordinators

Seoul TouchUp's Vehicles for Safety and Comfort

Seoul TouchUp is Supported by

• KHIDI - Officially registered at the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI)
• Medical Korea - Korean Medical Tourism Association
• KTO - Medical Tourism Partnership with the Korean Tourism Organization
• Ministry of Health & Welfare - Seoul TouchUp is approved by the Ministry of Health & Welfare
• KIPO -The Seoul TouchUp name and logo are protected by Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO)

Do you want to know how you can experience Seoul TouchUp?

• How it Works
• Terms & Policies
• TouchUp Packages
• Surgery Overview
• Korean Plastic Surgery Cost

Let us be your ultimate guide through your health care  journey in South Korea!

MEDICTEL is a dynamic company incorporated in Korea

that offers a variety of services in the sphere of medical tourism.

Before Korea

We will contact the hospital you choose and arrange all the necessary papers. 

We can recommend you the most proper hospitals basing on your diagnosis.

We will translate all your medical records.

We will help you arrange all the documents necessary for your arrival to Korea (visa support).

We can book you hotel and arrange transfer to and from the airport.

How we Process

We will provide your transfer from the airport to your hotel. 

We will help you get around the hospital during your first visit.

We will arrange an interpreter for you (English, Russian, Japanese)

We will translate your medical records from Korean to your mother tongue 

We will make an individual plan of leisure time activities specially for you, considering your wishes. 

We will provide your transfer to the airport.

After Korea

We will guarantee your continuous contact with your doctors for further consultations and necessary recommendations.

We will translate all your further consultations from Korean to your mother tongue even after your departure from Korea. 

Let us be your ultimate guide through your health care journey in South Korea!

MEDICTEL is a dynamic company incorporated in Korea that offers a variety of services in the sphere of medical tourism.

We suggest our clients to use the advantages of Korean knowledge and technologies and get the treatment in the best hospitals of South Korea.

Our aim is to make the stay of our clients in Korea as comfortable and pleasant as possible. 

What we do  Individual Medical Program, Meeting At The Airport, Transportation Services, Interesting Tour Plans, Translations Services, Medical Visa Issuance, Transfer To The Airport, Follow Up After Treatment

We are   founded : february 17, 2014 our partners : university hospitals, private clinics, traditional medicine clinics, plastic surgery clinics business license : authorized by khidi (korea health industry development institute) ​language support : english, russian, kazakh, korean, chinese, japanese.

Safety and Reliability​ :  Medictel is a medical tourism company trusted and certified by the South Korean government. We have been accredited by the government to have business licenses, medical tourism certification and insurance. We also maintain close relationship with Dispute Mediation Committee and work hand in hand with the Government of the Korean Ministry of Health and Korean Welfare, the Korean Ministry of Culture, and other medical tour departments in order to make the medictel of the best Korean Medical Tourism company.

Exprienced team :  Medictel has an experienced team to consult with in finding the best hospitals and doctors in Korea.

Global collaboration :  Medictel has a global cooperative relationship with several countries with same vision and mission in health, beauty and plastic surgery fields.

Modern accomadations  :  Medictel helps you find your accommodation in modern hotels and apartments located near your hospital in accordance with your budget.

Special tour events :  Medictel will plan special tour events for you, ranging from culinary tours, mall shopping, Korean souvenirs, to visits to Korean popular destinations.

Professionalism and Hospital Selection :  While Medictel is only an agent and don’t own a hospital of its own, we maintain a network system with specialized and renowned hospitals in South Korea which have the latest medical technology. Additionally we use the National Health Information database to evaluate hospitals, such as satisfaction rate and accident rate in order to recommend the most suitable hospitals to our clients.

Our partners 

 Why Us ?

We care about our clients until their health is better!

The best medical tourism company in Korea that accredited by Korean government. Our company provides the best quality of medical services for our patients. Experience one-stop medical services!

Providing services

Beautique korea provides these services for all of our patients., all of our services are free of charge, guarantee the best price, provide pick up service from & to airport, provide carepack for every patient, provide prescribed medication , medical advices before and after surgery, accompanying you from the consultation to the surgery and post-op treatments, staying at the hospital until patient finished, hospital & hotel reservation, translation , taxi claims for medical treatment purposes, solving problems instead of patients.

ID: BEAUTIQUEKOREA

📞 +82-10-3553-3669

Online Consultation

• Research article
• Open access
• Published: 06 April 2021

A bilingual systematic review of South Korean medical tourism: a need to rethink policy and priorities for public health?

• Qing Xu 1 , 2 , 3 ,
• Vidya Purushothaman 2 , 4 ,
• Raphael E. Cuomo 1 , 2 , 4 &
• Tim K. Mackey   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2191-7833 1 , 2 , 3 , 4  

BMC Public Health volume  21 , Article number:  658 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

7577 Accesses

12 Citations

1 Altmetric

Metrics details

In 2016, the “Act on Support for Overseas Expansion of Healthcare System and Attraction of International Patients” was enacted by the South Korean government in an attempt to accelerate growth of its medical tourism industry. However, only a few years after its implementation, the benefits are not well understood, nor have the positive or negative impacts of expanding Korea’s medical tourism sector been properly evaluated.

We aimed to systematically review and summarize existing literature describing South Korea’s medical tourism policy and legislative history, while also assessing the impact of this domestic policy approach on the country’s public health systems.

A bilingual systematic literature review was conducted per PRISMA guidelines for all South Korean medical tourism legislative and policy literature using MeSH terms and other related keywords in two academic databases, PubMed and JSTOR. Published studies were included if they directly addressed South Korean medical tourism policy. To supplement results from the peer-review, the grey literature was also searched using Google search engine for relevant policy documents, information from government websites, and national statistics on medical tourism-related data.

This review included 14 peer-reviewed journal articles and 9 websites. The majority of literature focused on the legislative history of South Korea’s pro-medical tourism policy, economic considerations associated with industry growth, and the specific experiences of medical tourists. There was a lack of studies, analytical or commentary-based, conducting in-depth analysis of the healthcare impact of these policies or comparing benefits and costs compared to other medical tourism destinations. Proponents of medical tourism continue to advocate the government for increased deregulation and investment in the sector.

This systematic review suggests that policy decisions may prioritize economic growth offered by medical tourism over negative effects on the healthcare workforce, access and equity, and its potential to undermine Universal Health Coverage. South Korea continues to examine ways to further amend the Act and grow this sector, but these actions should be taken with caution by critically examining how other countries have adapted their policymaking based on the real-world costs associated with medical tourism.

Peer Review reports

Medical tourism is described as the practice of tourists electing to travel across international borders to receive some form of medical treatment in a country outside of their place of primary residence [ 1 ]. The main motivations for this movement of millions of patients globally are broadly classified as seeking better-qualitycare, lower cost of services, and quicker access, all factors that are impacted by macro policy issues such as the individual freedom of persons to seek treatment overseas, lack of binding legal frameworks on medical tourism, cross-border arrangements (such as immigration and trade agreements), and patient ethical and privacy issues [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. Estimating the market size and scope of this specific sector of the international healthcare industry can be challenging as there is generally no universally agreed upon definition of what constitutes medical tourism or travel and there is also a lack of verifiable data at the national level due to each government’s reluctance to share information due to market competition concerns [ 2 , 3 ].

Allied Market Research, a firm that the South Korean government cited in its official reports, forecasted that the global market for medical tourism was projected to be worth $143.8 billion by 2022, representing compounded annual growth of 15.7% from 2015 to 2022 [ 6 ]. These estimates are based on projections that include patients traveling across international borders for both critical and less critical but still necessary procedures in addition to elective out-patient single day procedures (e.g. aesthetic, cosmetic and dental treatment) [ 6 ]. Though verifiable data about medical tourism may be limited, several sources indicate that the main destinations for medical tourism are located in Asia [ 2 , 7 ]. These include “Key Destination” countries of Thailand, India, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines, with South Korea being classified as an “Emerging Destination.” [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ] Collectively, these rival regional economies set the stage for South Korea’s own domestic approach to medical tourism policy reform that will be described and explored in this review [ 13 ].

In recent years, due to the government's support, South Korea is becoming one of the top 10 destinations for medical tourism globally, with a focus on promoting its high-quality clinical medicine, technical proficiency of its physicians, and cutting-edge medical technology [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. This emergence was catalyzed in 2016 when the South Korean government launched the “1 st Comprehensive Plan to Support Overseas Expansion of the Healthcare System and Attraction of International Patients” (the “Comprehensive Plan”). The plan represented the policy implementation phase of Article 18 of the “Act on Support for Overseas Expansion of Healthcare System and Attraction of International Patients” (“the Act”), a piece of national legislation that was passed in July 2016. Together, the Act and the Comprehensive Plan are the result of concerted efforts by the South Korean government to promote and globalize its domestic healthcare industry by intensifying its competition in attracting foreign patients for the global medical tourism market, which is considered a high value-added industry.

The Act was clear about its legislative intent: expansion of domestic medical services for overseas patients; enabling foreign patient access, appeal, and convenience to safe and high-quality South Korean medical services; and using revenue from medical services offered to foreigners as a vehicle for national economic growth. Two years after the Act, in May 2018, the government launched the “Enforcement Plan to Support Overseas Expansion of Healthcare System and Attraction of International Patients 2018” (“the Enforcement Plan”). Specifically, the South Korean government enacted the Enforcement Plan to adjust and reset the goals of its domestic medical tourism industry push after conducting additional economic and policy assessments. Hence, the progression from legislative action through the Act, implementation through the Comprehensive Plan, and monitoring and adjustment via the Enforcement Plan, represents an important policy experiment to examine in the context of global medical tourism trends and implications for domestic and international health policy.

Despite optimistic economic growth projections, there is local opposition to the South Korean government’s efforts to promote its medical tourism industry. The Korean Federation of Medical Activists Groups for Health Rights (KFHR), an organization that promotes human rights, the right to health, and the rights of healthcare workers (also supported by the Association of Physicians for Humanism, Association of Korea Doctors for Health Rights, Korea Dentists Association for Health Society, and Korean Pharmacists for Democratic Society and Solidarity for Worker’s Health) has argued that investing in medical tourism could lead to commercialization of the national public health system. This could lead to increased costs due to expansion of the private health sector and lead to an internal “brain drain” of healthcare professionals (i.e. when domestic healthcare workers leave rural areas to practice in areas with more coverage and higher income potential or when they leave public practice for private practice) to the more lucrative medical tourism market.

National debate and disagreement among stakeholders about the utility of this domestic public policy stance and investment in medical tourism continues. However, there is limited literature discussing medical tourism policy specific to the experience of South Korea, despite the fact that the country offers an important case study for this topic. Hence, the objective of this systematic review is to summarize the different economic and public health impacts of South Korea’s pro policy stance on supporting its medical tourism sector. In addition, the review also provides critical analysis of South Korea’s medical tourism industry compared to other Asian destination countries including Thailand, India, and Singapore, which the South Korean government considers as regional rivals. Based on this comparative analysis, we conclude with a set of recommendations about what the future should look like for South Korea’s medical tourism policy stance.

Search strategy

This systematic review was carried out in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines [ 18 ], and was conducted in January 2021. The databases PubMed and JSTOR were searched for articles published in English and Korean languages published before January 18, 2021, using the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) unique ID term “Medical Tourism” (ID: D057193) with “Korea” (ID: D007723). Other non-MeSH key search terms included “Tourism, Medical”, “Health Tourism”, “Tourism, Health”, “Surgical Tourism”, “Tourism, Surgical”, “Medical Tourists”, “Medical Tourist”, “Tourist, Medical”, and “Tourists, Medical” in combination with “Korea” or “Korean”. Additionally, we examined the grey literature using the Google search engine in both English and Korean language to supplement the scientific literature and carry out policy analysis of primary documents available online. The same keywords in the literature review were used in structured web search queries with the addition of the equivalent Korean language terms: 의료관광, 관광 정책, 국제 의료관광 코디네이터, 의료관광마케팅. In order to better understand the policy rationale for South Korea’s activities in promoting its medical tourism industry, we also conducted a descriptive assessment of the policies of other top Asian medical tourism destinations in our grey literature review. In addition to Google keyword searches, we also reviewed and examined documents from select South Korean government websites (Ministry of Health and Welfare, Korea Tourism Organization), which contained information specific to the legislative process and policy language of the Act, the Plan, and the Enforcement Plan. All of these sources were included on the basis of being primary documents or information sources having direct relevance to recent South Korean public policy decisions on medical tourism.

Inclusion criteria

Articles were included for purposes of analysis in this review if they discussed or analyzed South Korean medical tourism policy, including in comparison or in contrast to other major Asian medical tourism destinations. Major themes detected included analysis in relation to barriers to policy implementation, challenges regarding the operational status of medical tourism policy, barriers to delivering service in the medical tourism sector (e.g., cultural and social background differences), client motivation (e.g., loyalty) to participate in the medical tourism industry, and any assessment of the impact of medical tourism policy (e.g., internal benefit, economic impact) on South Korea. Research articles, review articles, case studies, commentaries and letters to the editor were included for review in this study.

Exclusion criteria

Studies were excluded if they were conducted or discussed medical tourism policy with a focus on other countries (e.g., Japan, the United States of America, Mongolia, etc.), articles that discussed other important medical issues in South Korea (e.g., HIV, Middle East respiratory syndrome, etc.) but did not focus on medical tourism, articles that focused on immigrant health issues in other destination countries (e.g., the health of Korean Americans in other countries), and articles focused on other medical problems related to globalization of healthcare (e.g., transnational organ transplant industry, stem cell tourism, etc.) We did not exclude literature on the basis of specific content types or study design.

Study selection

All studies were extracted and assessed for eligibility by QX and VP independently to minimize errors and to reduce potential biases. Discrepancies regarding study eligibility were resolved through discussion among all authors for final consensus.

Bias assessment

The Cochrane Collaboration risk of bias (RoB) tool was used to assess bias for any randomized controlled trials (RCTs) selected [ 19 ]. If comparable quantitative measures were uncovered across studies, the influence of publication bias was to be assessed using a funnel plot. For other types of studies, we qualitatively evaluated the influence of biases which have been previously cited as being influential in health policy research.

Search results

Based on our review and search criteria, we reviewed a total of 123 results (22 journal articles and 100 Google search results) (see Fig.  1 ). After excluding one duplicate, 21 published articles were returned on PubMed and JSTOR that were then reviewed for relevance to the study inclusion and exclusion criteria. After review, seven articles were excluded based on a review of the focus of the paper after reviewing the abstract and then reviewing the full text. The major themes identified in the literature focused on: (a) formal policy reviews of South Korea’s medical tourism industry [ 20 ]; (b) analysis of current barriers, challenges and successes experienced by the South Korean medical tourism industry [ 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]; (c) proposals to assess the performance of the South Korean medical tourism industry [ 26 ]; (d) assessment of utilizing the healthcare worker education system to support further development of the medical tourism industry [ 27 ]; (e) examining the relationship between employee satisfaction and performance of medical tourism facilitators [ 28 ]; (f) analysis of the effects of price and health consciousness and satisfaction associated with the South Korean medical tourism experience [ 29 , 30 ]; and (g) factors associated with why certain patients choose to participate in medical tourism in South Korea [ 31 , 32 , 33 ].

Flowchart of study selection

Based on our Google online search methodology, we reviewed the first 100 results returned (50 in Korean, 50 in English). After removing duplicate results, we retrieved 32 unique English and 38 Korean websites that were then reviewed for relevance and inclusion in this study. Website results in English included 2 government websites, 5 news articles, 2 online articles, and 23 advertisement websites; Korean websites included 2 government websites, 18 news articles, 9 online articles, and 9 advertisement websites. After excluding the 32 advertisement websites that where were not relevant to the study, 38 websites were reviewed for full content and 9 websites (English 7, Korean 2) were identified that directly related to the South Korean medical tourism industry, including proving reports and updates associated domestic medical tourism policy and relevant data. Our grey literature review provided additional details on the specific motivation, rationale, and strategy of the South Korean government in pursuing its medical tourism policy that was not available in the literature. Overall, 14 journal articles (see Table  1 ) and 9 websites (see Table  2 ) were eligible for inclusion in the study.

In the subsequent sections we provide an overview of how these different sources of information relate to the history of medical tourism legislation and policymaking in South Korea, the rise of the medical tourism industry and data related to its performance, criticism and challenges associated with the industry, and its potential future trajectory.

Risk of bias

Our review did not uncover RCTs for bias assessment using Cochrane Collaboration guidelines. Prior publications have suggested that publication bias [ 34 ], surveillance bias [ 35 ], context bias [ 36 ], and omission bias [ 37 ] may be relevant to health policy research. Quantitative measures uncovered by this systematic review were not comparable across studies, among the small subset of studies where quantitative measures were reported. Therefore, it was not possible to engage in conventional techniques used to assess for these biases. Nevertheless, as consistent with prior literature, it appears valuable to conceptually make room for the possibility that these biases may have affected the overarching findings of this review as follows: (1) there may have been unpublished reports describing lack of economic and public health impacts from medical tourism in South Korea; (2) impacted economic and public health areas may have been more heavily surveilled than non-impacted areas; (3) the threshold for economic and public health impact may be more sensitive for researchers assessing medical tourism in a South Korean setting; and (4) relatively egregious acts of commission by the medical tourism sector in South Korea may be favored for reporting over acts of omission [ 20 ].

Overview of history of South Korea medical tourism policy

The South Korean government’s policy of actively promoting medical tourism began in earnest following the 2009 revision of ‘Medical Service Act’, which opened the door for domestic healthcare entities and other private companies (with the exception of companies in the healthcare insurance industry) to lawfully attract foreign patients with healthcare services [ 24 ] (see Table  3 for policy timeline). In conjunction with the ‘Medical Service Act’, in January 2009, the South Korean government announced the “New Growth Engine: Vision and Strategy” plan. According to this strategy, global health care was viewed as one of 17 new growth industries under the category of 5 high value-added industries that the government would strategically explore.

In February 2013, 140 national priorities were announced by former president Park Geun-hye, with global healthcare being named one of them [ 38 ]. This led to the passage of the Act in 2016, but even before its enactment, the South Korean administration implemented a series of policy mechanisms aimed at promoting medical tourism based on separate comparative assessments of the medical tourism industry of other countries. Specifically, the South Korean government analyzed the policy and economic strategies of Thailand, Singapore and India, major competitor countries in the sector, and reported findings in its 2011 Economic Policy Coordination Committee report titled “Performance of and Promotion Measures for Medical Tourism Industry” [ 39 , 40 , 41 ]. The results of these evaluations are reflected in policy decisions pre- and post-the Act that will be discussed [ 26 ].

For example, one policy mechanism the report identified as a means to encourage medical tourism included the creation of a medical visa system to enable foreign patients’ easier entry and access to the South Korean healthcare system. Other policy changes included giving permission to allow medical advertisements in foreign languages, representing a clear departure from strict regulations on marketing within its own national health care system [ 42 ]. In July 2011, in order to make it easier for foreign patients to take action against potential medical errors and to reduce financial risk for foreign patients, the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) developed medical malpractice insurance policy covering domestic and foreign patients [ 42 ]. In December 2011, through the revision of Presidential decree of Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) also allowed physicians and dentists to dispense medicines to foreign patients, despite strict separation for similar diagnosis and dispensing in its public health system.

Further, in order to enable better provision of healthcare services for medical tourists, a new type of business entity called the “medical tourism hotel business” was created with the enactment of a Presidential decree through the ‘Tourism Promotion Act’ on November 2013. The decree established medical hotels as entities that provide services and products similar to what a hotel would offer (e.g. different types of room accommodations, food and beverage services, etc.), while also allowing them to provide various types of medical services in the role of a healthcare facility [ 43 , 44 , 45 ]. Additionally, this policy required that South Korean medical tourism hotels only be registered by medical providers or medical tourism business agencies and also developed an International Meditour Coordinator (IMC) to further promote these services within the public health system [ 20 ]. Medical tourism facilitators also focused on improving the satisfaction among those working in the medical tourism industry in order to improve service performance and appeal [ 28 ].

Following these early minor policy actions to promote medical tourism, in 2016, the Act was signed into law as a response to industry criticism that there was still insufficient legal and institutional support to grow the medical tourism industry [ 46 ]. The main legislative elements of the Act were designed to address what was perceived as continued policy shortcomings that inhibited growth of the sector, particularly in the context of growth experienced by other regional destination countries (for a summary see Table  4 ). Collectively, these provisions established certain criteria and formal evaluation of South Korean medical tourism providers, put in place restrictions on who could provision medical tourism services, created mechanism for foreign patient’s rights and protections, and also enabled broader direct-to-consumer marketing of medical tourism services.

Reflecting a bigger push by the South Korean government to officially promote its domestic medical tourism industry, the entire industrial sector was promoted via a dedicated government sponsored website called “ VISIT MEDICAL KOREA ” ( http://english.visitmedicalkorea.com/english/pt/index.do ) operated by the Korea Tourism Organization and KHIDI. The website was specifically designed to introduce and promote services from South Korean hospitals and medical facilities to prospective foreign patients and has been translated into 5 different languages including English, Japanese, Chinese, Russian and Arabic. It should be noted that there is no Korean language version for this website.

Economic considerations of South Korean medical tourism

In 2016, based on legislative goals set by the Act, the Comprehensive Plan projected a substantial increase in the number of foreign patients that would use South Korean medical services from 0.3 million in 2015 to 0.8 million in 2021, with related revenues increasing from 666.4 billion won ($0.55 billion) to 1700 billion won ($1.40 billion) [ 47 ]. It also estimated additional added value through the creation of 80,000 jobs and other related medical tourism economic stimulus of 4000 billion won ($3.30 billion) through 2017–2021 [ 47 ]. Prior to the passage of the Act, the number of foreign patients visiting South Korea increased from 60,201 in 2009 to 296,889 in 2015, with an annual growth rate of 30.5%, reflecting significant and promising growth [ 23 , 38 ], which also benefited from the international popularity of Hallyu (Korean pop culture) [ 22 ]. In 2015, the distribution of foreign patients by nationality was Chinese (34%), US nationals (14%), Russians (7%), and Japanese (6%). The breakdown of healthcare utilization by medical department as used by medical tourists included internal medicine (21.3%), plastic surgery (11%), health checkup centers (9%), dermatology (9%), and orthopedics (6%). A total of 2,813 South Korean medical institutions attracted foreign patients in 2015 [ 38 ].

However, only two years after the Act, the adjusted plan (i.e., the Enforcement Plan) retargeted the projected goals by substantially lowering initial estimates anticipating an influx of new foreign patients. This revision reflected recognition of the need to correct optimistic projections of how fast the medical tourism industry would grow based on the impact of the Act and related pro-medical tourism policies (see summary in Table  5 ). Following these adjustments, the number of new foreign patients taking part in South Korea’s healthcare system has continued to fluctuate. For example, according to data from the South Korea MOHW, after the passage of the Act in 2016, the inbound number of international patients increased to 364,189, and the total revenue from international patient care grew to 860.6 billion won, which represented an annual average growth of 48.2% [ 48 ]. However, in 2017 the reported medical tourists dropped to 321,574, corresponding to a revenue drop of 26% from 2016 [ 49 ]. In 2018, the number of medical tourists had again increased to 378,967, reflecting a more modest 17.8% increase from 2017 [ 50 ].

Despite data generally pointing to economic growth of the South Korean medical tourism industry, the 2016 Comprehensive Plan highlighted some key challenges for the sector moving forward, including low overseas awareness of South Korean medical care [ 33 ], lack of professional personnel and expertise in attracting foreign patients, cultural differences with foreign patients that impacted service appeal [ 21 , 25 ], lack of customized medical services for foreign patients, and declining credibility of services due to cases of illegal and unsanctioned activities [ 24 ]. Hence, based upon data available prior to and post enactment of the Act, the industry has experienced growth, but officials continue to identify barriers that impede further development of the sector leading to calls for increased investment. There also remain uncertainties about the utilization of education systems that are needed to train a new cadre of healthcare professionals to support the growing workforce needs of the medical tourism industry [ 27 ]. Additionally, the potential negative impacts of investing in medical tourism did not appear to be factored into the government’s analysis.

Despite challenges with growth, the national government continued its aggressive investment in its domestic medical tourism industry. The rationale for this ongoing support was reflected in an official 2014 brief titled “Medical Globalization, the Benefits Go to Citizens”, where the MOHW argued the following:

“The benefits of medical globalization go back to all people. From 2009, 630,000 foreign patients visited Korea for five years. As a result, 1 trillion won ($ 0.83 billion) of medical revenues came from this, which is equivalent to exporting 95,000 small cars. By 2017, attracting 1.5 million overseas patients will result in medical revenues of 3.6 trillion won ($2.97 billion) and will increase the number of jobs of 28,000 (as of 2017)”.

Though continuing to receive national support, policy to specifically address challenges associated with the potential negative impacts of South Korea’s medical tourism industry (such as the internal brain drain of healthcare workers and privatization of the public healthcare sector) have received less attention in the literature and in formal government documents. For example, analysis under the Comprehensive Plan concluded that since the ratio of foreign patients (1% in 2014 and projected to increase to 3% in 2020) was relatively low, the South Korean medical infrastructure would be able to accommodate the increasing number of foreign patients without having a negative impact on domestic healthcare capacity. However, this calculation did not factor in more optimistic projections of rapid growth of foreign patients hoped for to calculate this same ratio [ 38 ].

Hence, analysis of the Comprehensive Plan finds that it primarily lists positive economic benefits of medical tourism yet lacks an in-depth assessment of how the sector will affect public healthcare capacity should foreign patients increase in the numbers needed to generate significant national economic benefit. In addition, the Comprehensive Plan as well as the Act does not mention how revenue generated from hospitals or attraction agencies due to deregulation, would be used to support the public health sector should any negative impacts occur due to growth that would need to be offset [ 51 ]. Also, it is unclear whether South Korea can achieve desired results in the face of strong competition from existing regional medical tourism rivals, which could push the South Korean government to policies favoring more deregulation and increased government stimulus in order to remain competitive.

Comparison of medical tourism policies of other top Asian destination countries

In order to better understand the policy rationale of South Korea in its continued promotion of its domestic medical tourism industry, it is important to assess the policies of other top Asian medical tourism destinations. A list of the 10 top medical tourism destinations around the world includes the following countries: India, Brazil, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey, Mexico, Costa Rica, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore [ 52 ]. Among these countries, a number of these “key destinations” are countries in Asia that have instituted aggressive policy initiatives seeking to promote medical tourism as a critical part of their national economic development strategy (see Table  6 for summary). Specifically, the Thai, Indian, and Singaporean governments have provided official government support for their medical tourism industries as part of a broader agenda of economic development and tourism expansion by way of various policy initiatives, including taking part in large international trade conferences and actively advertising the attractiveness of their respective medical tourism services [ 24 , 29 , 32 ].

For example, the success of the Thai medical tourism private sector, such as Bumrungrad Hospital, has encouraged the government to increase government involvement [ 30 , 40 , 53 ]. The Thai government started the policy initiative of “Thailand: Centre of Excellent Health Care of Asia” in 2003 with the aim of attracting 850,000 new foreign patients [ 54 ]. The Bumrungrad Hospital claims to be one of the largest private hospitals in Southeast Asia (with 580 beds and more than 30 specialty centers treating 1.1 million patients annually, including over 520,000 foreign patients) and also reported US$477 million turnover (revenue) in 2013 [ 41 ]. Importantly, countries like Thailand rely heavily on traditional forms of tourism and recognize the strong economic potential of the related medical tourism industry to contribute to overall economic growth. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, the direct contribution of travel and tourism (THB 3538.78 bn) was 21.6% of total Thailand GDP in 2018. To continue to support and promote the Thai medical tourism industry’s growth, several policy initiatives have been implemented by the government including simplification of visa procedures in order to facilitate easy entry of foreign patients, tax incentives for investment in health care facilities for medical tourists, and efforts to attract foreign patients through international advertising [ 14 , 40 ].

This is similar to the growth and support strategies undertaken by India. The country implemented a new visa category - an M (medical) visa - to attract a growing number of medical tourists through streamlining the convenience of the immigration entry process [ 15 ]. In addition to immigration policy changes, it also instituted tax breaks for medical tourism providers by lowering import duties and increasing the rate of accounting depreciation for some medical equipment while also providing land at subsidized prices for hospitals providing medical tourism services [ 42 ]. Another country heavily investing in medical tourism is Singapore, which in 2003, established “Singapore Medicine”, a multi-agencygovernment-industry partnership designed to make Singapore an international medical hub [ 40 ]. The Singaporean government helped their domestic hospitals to secure international accreditation that can help attract foreign patients as it provides an additional measure of healthcare quality and regulatory oversight [ 15 ]. Singapore has also signed agreements with Middle Eastern countries and has actively promoted information about its hospitals, competitive medical costs, and aligned tourism opportunities in order to attract prospective medical tourists to the country [ 55 ].

Based on the results of this study, we identified 14 articles through a systematic literature review from PubMed and JSTOR related to South Korea medical tourism policy. Among these studies we found that existing literature primarily focused on the legislative history and rationale for South Korea’s enactment of pro-medical tourism policy, economic considerations and opportunities associated with growth of the industry, and the specific experiences of medical tourists visiting South Korea. There was an overall lack of studies, analytical or commentary-based, that conducted an in-depth analysis of the healthcare impact of these policies or comparing their benefits or costs to other medical tourism destinations. This is likely reflected by the fact that the majority of literature we reviewed did not address the topic from a public health or health system perspective, but instead focused on barriers to development, economic impact, effectiveness of promotional policies, and experiences and satisfaction of medical tourists. This asymmetry in the policy research agenda for South Korea is also reflected in broader published reviews of the medical tourism industry by Virani et al. that suggested only a small proportion of medical tourism research focuses on policy issues [ 56 , 57 ]. Crucially, this could create knowledge gaps in how we understand the pros and cons of this industry and further limit the ability to generate evidence-based policymaking in favor of public health-centered outcomes.

Though a number of countries, including South Korea, have made significant economic and policy commitments to grow their medical tourism industries with the aim of promoting their domestic healthcare service and tourism sectors, the benefits remain unclear, particularly in the context of the possible negative impacts of promoting this form of domestic and international healthcare policy [ 58 , 59 ]. In fact, some key risks and negative consequences have been highlighted in national debate about the Act. Specifically, during the review of the Act in the Health, Welfare, and Family Committee meeting of the National Assembly of Korea, a lawmaker argued as follows: first, a domestic patient would have less access to a tertiary hospital; second, hospitals might prioritize and provide better service to patients who bring more benefit to the hospital by paying with non-national insurance funds (i.e., foreign patients paying out of pocket), which could preclude medical services to domestic patients with national insurance; and third, medical tourism could represent a slippery slope to privatization of public medical institutions.

Beginning with the first concern of limiting access for domestic patients, internal “brain drain” represents a key concern with medical tourism, including in South Korea. This occurs when healthcare providers in destination countries are “captured” by the medical tourist patient population by instead serving the medical tourist market at the expense of domestic patients. The creation of a higher-paying privatized market with insufficient regulation can cause healthcare providers to shift from treating patients in the lower-paying public health sector. For example, Noree et al. concluded that the Thai health system has suffered from a shortage and inequitable distribution of physicians due to shifts from public to private hospitals and that increased numbers of medical tourists are worsening this situation [ 38 ]. India, another top medical tourism destination has also suffered from shortages of healthcare professionals in public settings, with the private sector now emerging as the main employer of the healthcare workforce [ 59 ]. Hence, an influx of business activity for medical tourism can heavily skew the distribution and availability of the domestic healthcare workforce if internal ‘brain drain’ is not properly managed [ 60 ].

Related to the second concern raised during the Act’s debate, the internal brain drain, which impacts a country’s doctor-to-patient ratio in the public health sector can also lead to a “two-tiered” healthcare system. This occurs when foreign and certain domestic patients benefit from access to better private healthcare services with more favorable doctor-to-patient ratios and access to state-of-the-art medical facilities, while local, rural and poorer populations may be limited to lower quality care or resource strained healthcare access [ 17 ]. This distorts healthcare expenditures and can lead to ‘cream skimming’, where rich patients with better access and ability to pay gain greater access to healthcare services at the expense of patients who already lacked access, potentially worsening existing health disparities [ 60 ].

Domestic promotion of medical tourism can also lead destination country governments to shift already scarce public healthcare resources away from essential services and benefits towards more resource-intensive activities in order to compete for the business of foreign patients, given that the medical tourism industry primarily competes on quality and price [ 38 , 41 , 54 ]. Destination countries are also more likely to invest in their medical tourism industries through direct funding, tax subsidies, and land grants, all incentives that can crowd-out public investments allocated towards critical public health infrastructure and programs. This can consequently lead to greater privatization at the expense of public institutions, the third concern raised.

Although national governments are expected to play a critical role in regulating the private healthcare sector (including the medical tourism industry), state interventions or remedial actions by the South Korean government that have been implemented thus far appear to be minimal. Critically, even though concerns have been raised and South Korean policymakers purposefully shaped the Act based on strategies of competitors, policy learning has been selective, with many of the remedial mechanisms used by other countries to guard against the problematic aspects of their own domestic medical tourism industries neglected [ 56 , 57 ]. For example, Singapore has attempted to address the issue of internal brain drain by recruiting high quality healthcare workers from other neighboring countries and offering competitive salaries, training and career development opportunities [ 56 ]. Singapore has also reversed its policy position on promoting public sector participation in medical tourism, shifting to restrict public hospitals from marketing to foreign patients to address shortages of hospital beds [ 56 ].

Further, profits gained from the medical tourism industry are not likely to “trickle down” to other public programs, one of the benefits argued by proponents and supporters of medical tourism. This “redistribution” is inherently difficult given a non-redistributive tax system, a largely foreign-owned medical tourism sector, and the potential negative impacts of deregulation or possible presence of corruption. Therefore, although a destination country gains economically from medical tourism (for example, in terms of increased GDP), it does not necessarily equate to gains for the overall healthcare system due to resulting healthcare workforce shortages, negative impact on availability of specialty care areas, and skewed tax benefits [ 38 ]. In response to many of these challenges, Thailand has removed restrictions on recruiting international medical graduates, levied a tax on medical tourism services to fund its health systems, reviewed policies on long-stay tourism, and restricted tourists from using certain specialties [ 56 ]. These remedial responses by other countries are critical policy lessons and tools that the South Korean government should consider in future medical tourism policymaking.

Given South Koreas’ heavy reliance on the private sector for healthcare service provisioning, the possibility of a two-tiered system emerging that disproportionately prioritizes resource allocation for medical tourism patients compared to the general public should be recognized as a critical concern in future policymaking [ 31 ]. In response, the South Korean government should carefully weigh the pros and cons of continuing to aggressively promote its medical tourism industry, including addressing concerns that political and competitive pressures will lead to increasing calls for privatization. Hence, assessing the tradeoffs between economic gains and the larger health policy impact of medical tourism on the entire South Korean health system and its citizen’s health is needed. This is particularly important in countries like South Korea, which have committed to Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

What lies ahead for the future of the Korean medical tourism industry?

In 1989, the Republic of Korea (e.g. South Korea) achieved UHC, resulting in the entire population gaining access to either the national health insurance scheme (about 97% of the population) or from the tax-based Medical Aid Program (about 3% of the population) [ 31 ]. In contrast to public health financing through national health insurance, healthcare delivery is quite dependent on the private sector despite some public health facilities available for poorer and disadvantaged populations at the local level [ 61 ]. As an example, in 2012, the private sector accounted for approximately 94% of all hospitals and 88% of total beds [ 61 ]. Although the number of healthcare professionals has continuously increased in response to growing demand for healthcare services resulting from expanding health insurance coverage under UHC, the number of South Korean healthcare professionals is still below the average of other OECD countries [ 61 ].

Behind this backdrop, proponents of medical tourism have evaluated the South Korean government’s efforts to promote medical tourism and found it insufficient compared to efforts of rival countries even following passage of the Act [ 62 ]. A 2013 report by the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade (KIET) reported that ongoing weaknesses in the South Korean medical tourism sector were caused by low awareness and lack of sufficient public relations, inadequate infrastructure to support medical tourism services, lack of integrated support systems, overregulation that hinders activation of medical tourism, and intensifying competition from competitors [ 62 ]. Based on this evaluation, the report recommended several additional policy actions to secure South Korea’s competitive advantage in the global medical tourism industry with a focus on implementing extensive deregulation by: (a) improving investment conditions by allowing establishment of open investment (similar to for-profit) medical corporations; (b) allowing remote medical services between physicians and patients; (c) expanding the number of beds for foreign patients in hospitals; and (d) attracting large numbers of foreign patients through insurance companies [ 62 ]. However, the report did not highlight the potential consequences of deregulation of the sector, including concerns about maintaining quality of services, potential lack of oversight of private medical corporations and their intermediaries (e.g. including brokers, online sites and other intermediaries), and further unregulated privatization of health markets [ 63 ].

Some of the recommendations in the KIET report, such as allowing for remote medical services and the expansion of the number of beds for foreign patients, were introduced in both the Act and other government policy documents. The report by Korean Institute of Hospital Management (KIHM) also requested that the government change the limit on the number of beds for foreign patients in tertiary hospitals by increasing the ratio from 5 to 10%. The collection of these policy recommendations by proponents in favor of increasing investment in medical tourism heavily focuses on deregulation and increasing access for foreign patients to South Korean health services despite potential negative impacts for domestic patient access. Hence, it is important to reconcile the distortionary effects that these investments will have on local health systems and the communities they serve, along with the need to counteract them with remedial policy mechanisms other countries have implemented [ 56 ]. Otherwise, the health needs and wellbeing of South Korea’s own citizens will likely be compromised along with national goals of maintaining UHC [ 56 ].

Regional competitive market forces are also at play, with strong competition from existing Asian country competitors. KIET analyzed Japan and China’s increasing efforts to promote medical tourism, such as China’s designation of the Shanghai International Medical Zone and Japan’s national support of medical tourism as a key future industrial sector, as major emerging threats [ 62 ]. New competition from Taiwan is also attracting patients from Mainland China and the anti-Korean cultural movement among far-right groups in Japan has also discouraged Japanese patients from traveling to South Korea for medical treatment though the countries are close in geographic proximity [ 64 ]. More fundamentally, although the current cost of medical treatment in South Korea is internationally competitive, it is higher on average than that of Thailand and India, mainly due to higher labor costs [ 64 , 65 ].

Hence, despite the South Korean government’s effort to promote medical tourism for the past decade, its performance appears to fall behind other major medical tourism destinations in the region. Other countries have addressed regional competitive challenges with market specialization. For example, Singapore has taken advantage of its technological and logistical capabilities (including government investment in innovation, a globally-oriented medical education system, accreditations systems based on international standards, and technology infrastructure) and managed to create a unique niche in the global medical tourism market for its services [ 56 ], which could serve as a potential roadmap for future strategic investment and specialization by South Korea. Critically, overreaction by acquiescing to strong demands to relax regulations and expand government support through revision of the Act from proponents of further medical tourism expansion, such as hospitals and insurance companies, needs to be carefully critiqued.

Limitations

Our literature search was limited to the academic databases PubMed and JSTOR and the grey literature search was limited to search results prioritized by the Google search engine. PubMed and JSTOR were chosen based on relevance to the medical and life sciences literature (PubMed articles) and social science and policy-related articles not specific to medical or healthcare literature (e.g. JSTOR). Articles not indexed in PubMed and JSTOR, as well as the results beyond the first 50 search results from Google search were not included in this study which could have impacted study results. Further, we limited our structured keyword searches using Boolean searches on PubMed and JSTOR to the title and abstract of articles, which may have limited the number of articles returned for review. Lack of standardized approaches across selected studies presented challenges in assessing the potential influence of bias on the cumulative evidence for this body of literature. Also, we made subjective assessment of inclusion of articles based on relevance to South Korean medical tourism policy per our inclusion and exclusion criteria, which could have impacted results, but we also note that when we conducted keyword searches on general text of each article, very few directly addressed or were relevant to South Korea’s medical tourism policy.

Similar to other top destination countries for medical tourism, the collection of supporting policies spanning the Act, the Comprehensive Plan, and the Enforcement Plan enacted by the South Korean government has brought some economic benefit to the country and may similarly motivate other countries to pursue investment in this sector. However, lessons discussed in this review from the South Korean policy process, as well as other top destination countries, including Mexico, India, Thailand, and Malaysia, where policymaking is mostly focused on developing supply-side capacities and increasing competitiveness, often to the detriment of local and community health needs in absence of regulatory controls [ 56 ], should be acted upon with caution. Inherently there remains an underlining tension between medical tourism policy goals of economic growth and the need to maintain resilience and equity in domestic public health systems. Further, the need to establish international quality standards for international medical treatment, harmonizing legal, trade, migration and economic frameworks associated with multinational tourism services, and ensuring that patient choice is optimal for both domestic and tourism-seeking populations, continue to be critical concerns that need to be addressed by the broader global medical tourism industry [ 66 , 67 , 68 ].

Following the impeachment of former South Korean President Park Geun-hye and election in 2017 of opposition party candidate and current President Moon Jae-in, past policy positions that have continuously promoted medical tourism over the past decade need rethinking. The Moon administration should leverage its mandate for change and reform, including plans to reform and expand the country’s healthcare system, by looking carefully into the potential benefits and perils of continuing on the pathway of medical tourism expansion [ 69 ]. Critical in this approach should be an honest assessment of how medical tourism not only contributes to national economic output, but also how it can negatively impact domestic healthcare costs, access and affordability to treatment, and South Korea’s commitment to UHC.

Availability of data and materials

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

Abbreviations

Gross domestic product

Human immunodeficiency viruses

International Meditour Coordinator

Korean Federation of Medical Activists Groups for Health Rights

Korea Health Industry Development Institute

Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade

Korean Institute of Hospital Management

Korean Statistical Information Service

Ministry of Health and Welfare

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Universal Health Coverage

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Xu, Q., Purushothaman, V., Cuomo, R.E. et al. A bilingual systematic review of South Korean medical tourism: a need to rethink policy and priorities for public health?. BMC Public Health 21 , 658 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10642-x

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Destination Spotlight

U.s. healthcare cost hike and the shift toward korean medical tourism.

Americans are dealing with a huge monster in raging healthcare costs, leaving many abandoning their treatments and care needs to keep them from falling deeper into debt. Essentially, for many Americans, the United States is one of the most expensive countries to seek healthcare.

According to data in the 2022 KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey, average annual worker premium contributions have risen sharply in the last 10 years, from $4,316 in 2012 to $6,106 in 2022, while employer contribution has spiked $15,745 to $22,563 over the same period. As a result, Americans are devising new plans to meet their healthcare needs instead of drowning in debt while receiving care at home.

Many employers are turning to medical travel opportunities to offer their employees top-notch care at a fraction of the U.S. costs. This model is not only lowering unnecessary healthcare costs, but it is also helping health payers and buyers in the U.S. achieve desired health outcomes without running into financial burdens. One country increasingly in focus for many American health consumers and buyers is South Korea.

In a new webinar jointly organized by the Medical Tourism Association and the Korean Tourism Magazine, a team of global leaders and stakeholders in medical travel discuss the massive shift toward outbound medical travel in the U.S., and how Korea is rebranding and redefining healthcare to care for the pent-up demands of millions of international patients.

Korea's Robust Healthcare

In comparison to the United States ($40,364), the cost of a hip replacement in South Korea is nearly 30 percent cheaper at $25,000. In addition, while knee replacement costs $35,000 and face lift costs about $11,000 in the United States, these procedures can be done at $20,000 and $6,000 respectively in Korea.

Medical tourism continues to grow in South Korea. South Korea ranks number five globally in oncology, with three of its hospitals listed among the top 20 for excellence in cancer treatment. Further, Korea ranks high for five-year survival rate for stomach cancer patients at 77%, more than two times higher than that of the U.S. (32.4%).

In orthopedic surgery, Korea also ranks fifth globally in the number of spine disease research papers. Home to one of the top 10 global orthopedic clinics and four hospitals among the top 30 globally, Korea has demonstrated comparable expertise in orthopedics procedures. South Korea also boasts of high clinical outcomes across other specialties, including 100% thyroid cancer survival rates, 92.3% survival rates, and 79.9% cervical cancer survival rates, according to data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Health Industry Development Institute.

South Korea’s healthcare ecosystem is also one of the best in the world, with strong regulatory frameworks that safeguard the quality of care. Korea remains focused on building transparency in healthcare delivery, imposing severe punishment on unlicensed brokers and Charlatans.

Seoul National University Bundang Hospital

Seoul National University Bundang Hospital (SNUBH), one of the largest international hospitals and academic medical centers in Korea, is a center of excellence in oncology, orthopedics, and traumatology. The hospital provides healthcare services to more than 1.5 million patients every year across various specialties. 

The first digital hospital in Korea, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital leverages innovative solutions to deliver complex patient care, including the SAP HANA multi-model, single-database cloud for health data applications and other digital models to aid the patient care process. 

SNUBH continues to be a leading research center, leading breakthroughs in orthopedic research and other scientific discoveries. The hospital has recorded remarkable success in the treatment of orthopedic conditions, including intractable cervical spine diseases, pediatric orthopedic conditions, and complex sports injuries. 

The hospital has also recorded remarkable feats in other specialties, with a 76% success rate in intestinal cancer treatments and huge expertise in radiation oncology boasting state-of-the-art procedures, such as Gamma Knife therapy and 3D conformal radiation therapy. 

Asan Medical Center

Asan Medical Center, one of the largest hospitals in Korea with 2,700 beds, is another center driving inbound medical travel in Korea. A part of the Hyundai Corporation, owners of Hyundai Motor Group, Asan Medical Center has two large research centers focusing on medical advances and development.

Asan Medical Center has some of the most renowned centers of excellence in the world, including the Liver Transplantation Asan Medical Center, Heart Failure Institute, and Cancer Institute. Asan Medical Center’s Liver Transplantation Asan performs more than 400 living donor liver transplant procedures yearly.

More than 30% of organ transplantation procedures are performed in Korea, including 34.4% of Liver transplantation, 20.5% of kidney transplantation, 40.6% of heart transplants, 18.8% of lung transplants, and 65.3% of pancreas transplants, according to data presented by Dongkwan Kim, Head of International Affairs, Asan Medical Center.

The data further noted that the one-year survival rate following organ transplant was higher than the Korean and U.S. average data. Compared with data from the United Network for Organ Sharing and Korean Network for Organ Sharing, the one-year survival rates following heart transplant were as high as 95% in Asan Medical Center compared to 81% in the United States and 85% in Korea as a whole.

Asan Medical Center’s Liver Transplantation Institute has recorded tremendous feat over the last two decades, being the first center to perform an adult living donor liver transplantation using a modified right lobe in 1999 and dual living donor liver transplantation from two donors in 2000. In 2019, the center was ranked number 1 in the number of liver transplant surgeries done, with a record 505 liver transplants done that year.

The Center’s Heart Institute also ranks high globally in advanced cardiac procedures. The center pioneered the first stenting for the left main coronary artery in the world and the first success for Transcatheter Mitral and Aortic Valve Repairs in Korea.

Asan Medical Center’s Cancer Institute is also the largest in the country, with more than 700 beds, offering more than 22,000 cancer surgeries done yearly. The Center was ranked number 5 in U.S. News Week’s “Best Hospitals in the World” in 2022 for excellence in oncology.

Medical tourists in their thousands are leaving their countries to access these top-notch care services at Asan Medical Center, with more than 20,000 international patients visiting the center to meet their healthcare needs in 2019. The center has a robust international healthcare center that offers quality patient experience along all phases of the care journey, offering visa assistance, appointment booking services, airport pick-up, 24-hour translation and transportation, and post-discharge airport and remote consultations.

Seoul St. Mary's Hospital

Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital in Korea also drives inbound medical travel to the country. Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital is one of the member hospitals of the Catholic Medical Center, the largest healthcare network in Korea. Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, with more than 1000 beds, has 26 specialized centers of excellence, including the Catholic Hematology Hospital, the largest hematology hospital in Asia, performing more than 9,000 cases of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation as of June 2022.

Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital also boasts one of the largest cancer centers in Korea, the Comprehensive Cancer Institute. A multidisciplinary center with excellence in the treatment of several oncology conditions, Comprehensive Cancer Institute is renowned for the high success rates of cancer treatment services. The hospital’s Organ Transplantation Center remains one of the most renowned organ transplant centers in Asia. The center was the first in Korea to perform a liver transplant from a brain-dead donor in 1993.

According to data presented by the Head of International Affairs and Collaboration at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, Joy Oh, the stomach cancer treatment survival rate exceeds that of many top U.S. hospitals, including Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital has an International Healthcare Center that caters to the needs of the medical tourist, with a highly trained staff capable of delivering patients’ needs across various cultural contexts. The Center provides round-the-block interpretation services in English, Russian, Arabic, French, Japanese, and Chinese.

Gachon University Gil Medical Center

Gachon University Gil Medical Center, Incheon, Korea is also driving an inflow of international patients for a wide range of clinical services, especially oncology and fertility services. The 5th largest hospital in Korea, Gachon University Gil Medical Center ranks high in oncology procedures, with more than 515 breast cancer surgery done in 2021.

Gachon University Gil Medical Center has a robust medical travel program with an international healthcare center that offers translation services and round-the-clock availability to attend to patient needs and concerns. The team is also committed to an excellent patient experience, ensuring smooth flow along all touch points of the healthcare journey, including airport pickup and sending shuttle, and translation services.

More than 29% of inbound medical travel to Gachon University Gil Medical Center was by international patients needing oncology treatments, followed by medical tourists seeking fertility and gynecology services (19%) in 2021. Gachon University Gil Medical Center receives patients from many countries, including China, the United States, Russia, and Kazakhstan.

Korea is reshaping the dynamics of the industry as advances in the country's healthcare system are attracting millions of medical tourists from around the world. With strategic partnerships and business models, these hospitals are redefining care standards and the patient experience.

Seoul National University Bundang Hospital is one of the global healthcare institutions that are leveraging Global Healthcare Accreditation’s (GHA) resources and tools to expand their fronts and connect to millions of international patients around the world. With the

GHA’s Accreditation for Medical Travel is helping these hospitals remodel their healthcare packages to meet international patients’ needs and redefine patient experience. GHA offers resources, training, and relevant partnerships that medical travel programs can leverage to provide robust packages. GHA is led by a team of global medical travel experts and leaders who understand the nuances of the market and help medical travel hubs reposition themselves to align with international best practices in health, safety, and well-being.

Exploring the Surge of Cosmetic Tourism: Trends and Considerations in Aesthetic Procedures Abroad

Holistic healing: exploring integrative medicine and wellness retreats, meeting the surge: the growing demand for knee replacement surgeries and advances in the field, innovations in medical technology: how cutting-edge technology drives medical tourism, stem cells have powerful anti-aging properties, new shift for thailand’s medical travel landscape as mta launches new moves, continue reading, dominican republic’s giant strides to becoming a global leader in medical tourism, australian healthcare. it’s time. down under revolution - australia's epic rise as the ultimate destination for medical brilliance and global healthcare marvels, featured reading, exploring niche markets in medical tourism, medical tourism magazine.

The Medical Tourism Magazine (MTM), known as the “voice” of the medical tourism industry, provides members and key industry experts with the opportunity to share important developments, initiatives, themes, topics and trends that make the medical tourism industry the booming market it is today.

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Critical Success Factors of Medical Tourism: The Case of South Korea

Soojung kim.

1 Department of Tourism and Convention, Pusan National University, Pusan 46241, Korea; [email protected]

Charles Arcodia

2 Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel Management, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Rd, Nathan, QLD 4111, Australia; [email protected]

The purpose of this study was to identify the key success factors of medical tourism using the case of South Korea. Medical tourism refers to the phenomenon of travelling across national borders intentionally to access a variety of medical treatments, especially modern medical treatment. Through conducting semi-structure face-to-face in-depth interviews with the service suppliers of Korean medical tourism, it was discovered that Korean medical tourism has been facilitated by the effect of Hallyu and advanced Korean brand power. More importantly, tourism activities for companions and extra support for patients’ convenience are identified as important success factors of Korean medical tourism, suggesting that the medical tourism industry not only includes medical services but also involves tourism perspectives, supporting the patient and their companions to stay in a comfortable and pleasurable environment. This study generated results which are valuable for both academic and industry perspectives, as this is a field which has not been extensively researched. Medical tourism representatives in other countries can consult these findings to develop the industry.

1. Introduction

The medical tourism industry has expanded extensively since the late 1990s [ 1 , 2 ]. Medical tourism generally refers to travelling across international borders to obtain a range of medical services [ 3 , 4 , 5 ]. Patients looking for affordable, as well as high quality medical care travel to medical centers in other countries. The majority of medical tourists who travel from developed countries to developing countries are motivated by the out-of-pocket cost of healthcare, long waiting times to access the service or to access specific procedures which are not available in their home countries [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ]. The international medical tourism market size is expected to reach USD 131.35 billion by 2025, with an average annual rate of 20% [ 12 ].

Although there are a variety of destinations around the world, Asia is considered as a major medical tourism destination [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. Asian countries, including Thailand, India, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea, have enthusiastically promoted such services, and the competition to attract more international medical tourists has become more intense. The rise of the medical tourism industry in Asia can be partly attributed to the Asian financial crisis [ 14 , 17 ]. The Asian financial crisis discouraged much of middle-class Asia to pay for private healthcare, hence private hospitals have expanded by targeting international patients in order to generate revenue. Moreover, the medical tourism industry brings to these destinations benefits such as increasing gross domestic product (GDP), improving medical services and generating foreign exchange [ 3 ].

Although the lucrative medical tourism industry has captured the attention of Asian countries, there is a paucity of literature which focuses on medical tourism [ 3 ] and even fewer studies have explored the industry from supply perspectives [ 17 ]. Investigating the service suppliers’ perspective, however, is significant because it is the suppliers’ task to transform resources and demand requirements into value [ 18 ]. The creation of customer value is essential in sustaining a competitive advantage in the growing medical tourism industry [ 19 , 20 ] as it leads to affirmative customer evaluations [ 21 ]. Therefore, this study aims to identify and analyze the critical success factors of medical tourism from the service providers’ perspectives. This study adopted the case study approach, with South Korea as a representative case, and conducted in-depth interviews providing deeper and comprehensive understandings of this social phenomenon.

2. Definition of Medical Tourism

Although the medical tourism industry has expanded rapidly around the world, one of the major problems is that there is no consistent definition of medical tourism in the literature [ 5 , 6 , 14 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]. Connell [ 14 ] suggested some reasons for the difficulties in defining the term medical tourism; the various medical procedures provided, the variety of medical tourists’ motivations to access the services, the diverse socio-economic levels of medical tourists, the lack of features of tourism and leisure in medical tourism and the amount of resources allocated to particular activities. Some authors even criticized defining the term medical tourism [ 25 , 26 ], by arguing that the term medical tourism evokes fun, relaxation and pleasure images rather than serious health treatments. It is, however, more useful and valuable to have a consistent definition of medical tourism in circumstances where the number of medical tourists and the amount of revenue from the industry has increased around the world [ 14 , 17 , 26 ].

There are many terms which are used to describe the phenomenon of travelling to other countries to access healthcare; for example, medical tourism, health tourism, wellness tourism, transplant tourism, reproductive tourism and dental tourism [ 8 , 14 , 25 , 27 ]. Although some authors [ 28 , 29 , 30 ] used medical tourism and health tourism interchangeably, or considered medical tourism as one of the subcategories of health tourism [ 8 ], almost all authors distinguished medical tourism from health tourism [ 14 , 17 , 26 , 27 , 31 , 32 , 33 ]. Connell [ 17 ] distinguished health tourism and medical tourism by limiting medical tourism to “people travel often long distances to overseas countries to obtain medical, dental and surgical care while simultaneously being holidaymakers, in a more conventional sense,” (p. 1094), compared to the much broader concept of health tourism which indicates travelling with the main purpose of beneficial health outcomes. Carrera and Bridges [ 34 ] differentiated medical tourism from health tourism by emphasizing medical intervention in medical tourism products such as dentistry, cardiac surgery or cosmetic surgery in the former, and, non-medical intervention in health tourism products, such as enjoying a spa, visiting hot springs or receiving massages in the latter. Hall [ 27 ] distinguished between wellness, health and medical tourism based on medical tourists’ health statuses and travel purposes; for example, wellness tourism occurs when people, who are enjoying their well-being, travel with a health promotive purpose, and health tourism is when healthy people travel to access medical treatment with an illness preventive purpose; on the other hand, medical tourism is when people who have an illness travel to have medical treatment with an illness-curative purpose.

While it is difficult to define the term medical tourism, there are some common characteristics among the medical tourism definitions. The first characteristic of medical tourism is that medical tourists travel abroad for healthcare based on their own intention, which means that medical tourism is elective and discretionary, unlike formal cross-border institutional transfers [ 7 , 14 , 35 ]. There is no intention in a patient who is transferred from their home country to another country’s healthcare system by a physician’s decision. Unlike this patient, medical tourists decide to participate in medical tourism by themselves intentionally. Johnston, Crooks, Adams, Snyder and Kingsbury [ 35 ] also emphasized medical tourists’ intentions when defining medical tourism as “Medical tourism occurs when patients intentionally leave their home countries for non-emergency medical care that is not part of a cross-border care arrangement” (p. 1). Another feature of medical tourism is that the services tend to have medical intervention, contrary to other forms of health-related tourism products [ 8 , 13 , 14 , 22 , 34 ]. While health-tourism travelers tend to seek a spa or a massage, which do not have medical intervention, medical tourists pursue access to medical intervention treatment such as cardiac surgery or cosmetic surgery. Lastly, the term medical tourism is applied to the tourists who are not moving within a country but travelling across national borders to access medical services [ 6 , 14 , 25 , 36 ]. There are also movements within nations to access medical treatment; however, the term medical tourists refers to patients who cross national borders for medical procedures in almost all the literature.

Based on these characteristics, medical tourism in this study is defined as the phenomenon of travelling across national borders to intentionally access a variety of medical treatments which can be necessary or elective for medical tourists. These medical treatments can be all services which are offered in hospitals, including serious invasive surgeries such as cardiac surgery, but also light procedures such as health screenings as well as Botox or derma fillers. Activities such as visiting Korea to enjoy spas or massages which do not occur in hospitals are not considered as medical tourism in this study.

3. Medical Tourism Success Factors

3.1. increased demand.

There is no doubt about the increasing market size of medical tourism and the increasing demand for services [ 14 , 27 , 35 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 ]. The reasons for the increasing number of medical tourists travelling from developed to developing countries can be economically explained by Oyewole [ 41 ]. This author explained that increasing disposable income in developed countries facilitates the purchasing of services in developing countries where the pricing is very competitive. In particular, the US is expected to provide a huge medical-tourism market because of the US’s expensive treatment costs, long waiting times to access medical services, serious health insurance problems, and out-of-pocket expenses for elective surgery, even for people with health insurance [ 13 , 25 , 42 , 43 , 44 ]. Turner [ 25 ] explained that the reasons for the serious health insurance problems in the U.S. are the expensive health insurance fees and the high procedure costs. Expensive health insurance fees mean millions of Americans are underinsured on low-budget plans that cover only a fraction of the healthcare costs and services [ 45 ]. Even people with insurance cannot afford many medical procedures because of high deductibles and co-payments. For these reasons, all communities, from individuals to state governments, in the US are interested in medical tourism, which can help solve such problems [ 38 ].

Furthermore, most patients in Canada and the UK are exposed to a lack of timely access to elective procedures, although both countries provide universal healthcare coverage. This lack of timeliness motivates residents to participate in medical tourism [ 25 , 42 ]. However, it is not just inconvenient healthcare systems in developed countries that are leading to the growth of the medical tourism industry; other factors are also important, such as the serious growth in aging populations [ 46 , 47 ], the development of the Internet, the affordability of overseas transportation [ 48 ], improved standards in international healthcare and the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) multilateral trade agreement such as the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), including health services [ 25 , 37 , 43 , 49 , 50 ].

3.2. Suppliers’ Rigorous Investment in the Industry

Increasing demand for medical tourism has provoked fierce competition among several countries which enthusiastically promote themselves as medical tourism destinations [ 14 , 31 , 42 ]. At the present time, at least 28 countries are competing worldwide for the medical tourism business [ 51 ]. These countries can be divided based on continents: South Africa in Africa, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Dubai, India, Israel, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates in Asia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland in Europe, and Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama in Latin America [ 38 , 52 ]. Awadzi and Panda [ 42 ] divided these destinations into countries actively promoting medical tourism, such as Greece, South Africa, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Singapore, and countries relatively new to the field, including China, Germany, Canada, Costa Rica, Hungary, Dubai, Argentina and Cuba.

Although there are a variety of medical tourism destinations around the world, Asia is considered a major destination [ 6 , 13 , 15 , 30 , 43 , 53 ]. As mentioned earlier, the rise of the medical tourism industry in Asia can be partially attributable to the Asian financial crisis [ 14 , 17 ]. The Asian financial crisis discouraged much of middle-class Asia to pay for private healthcare; consequently, private hospitals focused their attention on international patients in order to generate revenue. Malaysia and Thailand were the leaders in the medical tourism industry, followed by other south-east Asian countries and India.

The main barriers to growth in the sector in Thailand, Malaysia and India are the negative perceptions toward healthcare in developing countries and a stereotypical perception of low cost equating to low quality [ 16 , 26 , 29 , 36 , 54 ]. In order to overcome these challenges, hospitals and healthcare institutions in major destinations have tried to receive international accreditation to prove the quality of their systems [ 31 , 55 ]. Joint Commission International (JCI), which is given by the most popular healthcare accreditation group Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), is the most desired and common accreditation for international medical tourism service providers [ 8 , 25 ]. The international accreditation increases the credibility of healthcare services in hospitals, which can be a competitive marketing tool for attracting international visitors.

3.3. The Role of the Medical Tourism Agency

Medical tourism agencies, also known as medical tourism facilitators, are the organizations which specialize in arranging suitable foreign hospitals and treatment, transportation and lodging during recuperation [ 43 ]. A few medical tourism agencies exist with branches both in the departure and destination countries, but most of the agencies are not of a huge size and have a short history [ 25 , 52 ]. The medical tourism agencies’ websites provide information which is useful to medical tourists, such as accredited hospitals, affordable prices, exceptional experiences, time advantages, high quality and reliable care [ 52 ]. Even though medical tourism agencies are identified as one of the service providers in the medical tourism industry, they tend not to be obliged to receive accreditation for their duty. Turner [ 38 ] advised that it is important that medical tourism agencies and facilitators should be subject to receiving external evaluation and accreditations which are based on meeting the criteria of transparent, appropriate, and well-defined standards of practice, as well as conforming to legal and ethical issues such as privacy of patient information and medical records and fair advertising.

4. Medical Tourism in South Korea

South Korea is emerging as a new medical tourism destination but ranks sixth among nine major Asian destinations; Thailand, Singapore, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Korea, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Israel [ 15 , 50 ]. South Korea is rapidly emerging as one of the medical tourism destinations with potential growth powers of advanced medical treatment technology and a reputation for plastic surgery [ 49 , 56 , 57 , 58 ]. In 2009, Korean medical tourism provided services for around 60,000 medical tourists and in 2017 the total number of international patients was 320,000. The country is forecasted to attract one million medical tourists by 2020 [ 58 ]. As demand for services in Korea increases, there is also an increasing number of service suppliers. A total of 31 medical tourism healthcare providers have been certified by Joint Commission International in Korea.

The main nationalities who visit Korea to access medical treatment are those from China, the U.S., Japan, Russia and Mongolia. The Japanese are interested in aesthetic treatments and crucial health treatments; on the other hand, the Chinese display a high demand for simple treatments, aesthetic and healthcare services [ 15 ]. Japan and China are selected as the major target countries in Korean medical tourism, and a few studies investigate consumer behaviors regarding them. Asian perceptions of beauty and the broader context of Korean popular culture encourage Korea to become a plastic surgery destination for a few East and South-East Asian countries [ 14 , 15 , 57 ]. Moreover, the numbers of patients who are from China, Russia, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Cambodia have dramatically increased, with an over 100 per cent average annual increase rate [ 59 ]. Internal medicine and healthcare screenings are the top two departments the medical tourists are mainly looking for; on the other hand, there is a radical increase in the number of medical tourists visiting Korea to access plastic surgery, traditional Korean medicine and ophthalmology [ 59 ].

The major organizations promoting Korean medical tourism the most actively are the medical centers, the central government and the municipal governments which are the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism [ 60 ]. The Ministry of Health and Welfare aims to improve the overall population health and provide equity of opportunity to social participation, and facilitates medical tourism as a part of strategic global cooperation [ 61 ]. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism aims to build a sustainable society and regards medical tourism as a major facilitator to achieve an economically, socially and culturally sustainable society [ 62 ]. The government has considered medical tourism to be the new growth industry and actively participates in expanding the industry by implementing overseas marketing, fostering human resources, expanding one stop service centers and establishing The Korean International Medical Association (KIMA), which comprises of private medical facilities and governmental organizations [ 50 , 60 ].

In spite of Korea’s popularity as a medical tourism destination, there is a paucity of literature which studies medical tourism in Korea, because Korea has only recently entered the medical tourism market compared to Thailand and Malaysia [ 15 , 16 , 54 , 56 , 63 ]. Among the few reported studies, some focused on analyzing the demand perspectives, such as how cultural differences affect the choice of destination [ 15 , 40 ] and the formation of Japanese tourists’ travel plans for medical treatment in Korea [ 56 ]. One article investigated the key developmental characteristics of medical tourism in Korea [ 39 ]. As the medical tourism industry becomes more competitive, identifying demand expectations and requirements provides key resources for establishing a competitive advantage; however, investigating the service suppliers’ perspective is also important because it is the suppliers’ tasks that transform resources and demand requirements into value and a competitive advantage [ 18 ]. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the success factors in Korean medical tourism from the service provider perspective.

5. Methodology

5.1. case study.

This paper reports on a case study of South Korea as a single representative study. A case study uses an empirical approach and a particular person, group or situation to investigate a contemporary phenomenon [ 64 ], such as medical tourism. A case study approach is useful in the exploratory stage of the investigation, as it enables the researcher to obtain a conceptual insight into events through the interpretation and combining of theory with the events [ 65 , 66 ]. Korean medical tourism has developed in earnest since 2009, when the government selected the healthcare industry as one of the new engines for economic growth, and requires further investigation [ 67 ] to maintain its popularity and competitiveness over other medical tourism destinations.

5.2. Samples of this Study

Purposive sampling was used to determine the medical tourism suppliers to be included in this study. The sample organizations were consciously selected based on their expertise and experience [ 68 ], including their experience in promoting medical services, attracting international medical tourists and providing medical tourism services. Participants were comprised of 21 service providers from hospitals, five from medical tourism facilitators and two from government organizations. More specifically, various departments of hospitals participated in the in-depth interviews, which included general hospitals offering diverse specialist services, specialist plastic surgery hospitals, and other service providers offering Korean traditional medicine, dermatology, health screening, internal medicine, orthopedics and ophthalmology, as Figure 1 describes.

Components of the hospital.

5.3. Data Collection and Analysis

This study conducted semi-structured face-to-face in-depth interviews with service suppliers of Korean medical tourism to obtain richer and more meaningful opinions toward the key success factors of Korean medical tourism. The in-depth interviews were designed to take approximately 30 min and they consisted of open-ended questions which provided the important concerns of participants and provided a rich source of multiple insights for further investigation [ 69 ]. The collected data were analyzed by using content analysis, which is commonly used in social science research to analyze textual data such as interview transcriptions or travel diaries [ 70 ]. In this study, the collected data were analyzed by using quantitative content analysis which counted text populations within categories, which is a clear and reasonable methodology based on the assumption that the most frequent theme is the most important [ 71 , 72 ]. The categories were inductively extracted from the collected data. As many headings as were highlighted through reading the interview transcripts and indefinite categories were created.

6. Results and Discussion

All of the interviewees recognized the increased number of medical tourists in Korea, and the key factors identified for attracting more medical tourists to South Korea included the developed medical technology with a reasonable price, tourism activities for companions, follow-up care, the Hallyu effect, extra supports for patients, strong government investment in medical tourism, and advances in the Korean branding. The full list of identified factors is itemized in Figure 2 .

The number of respondents indicating each success factor.

6.1. Developed Medical Technology with a Reasonable Price

Medical tourism suppliers regarded high levels of medical technology as the strongest success factor followed by reasonable prices for the participants, though reasonable pricing is considered as the first motivation for medical tourists to go abroad to access medical treatment. This is similar to the conclusions provided by Crooks, Kingsbury, Snyder and Johnston [ 6 ], which suggests that high levels of medical technology is more emphasized than low cost in marketing materials because emphasizing low cost can increase the suspicion of low cost being linked with low quality.

6.2. Tourism Activities for Companions

The service providers argue that tourism activities such as shopping, sightseeing and/or casinos provide competitiveness for Korean medical tourism. Shopping, among other activities, is developed in Korea, providing greater product variety within brands at lower prices than in China or Japan [ 73 ], the major sources of medical tourists and patients [ 50 ]. Participant 1 explained that “Chinese and Japanese enjoy shopping and they said that there are more various products with lower price in Korea even though same brand”, while Participant 15 additionally mentioned that “Plastic surgery medical tourists tend to go shopping rather than go sightseeing. They are likely to purchase luxurious products, which are cheaper than in their home countries, even purchasing Korean products, which is also an aspect of the Hallyu”. According to Lam, Du Cros and Vong [ 24 ] Chinese potential medical tourists prefer shopping and sightseeing, while the least preferred activity is gambling. Chinese medical tourists’ preference for shopping is another reason why Chinese medical tourists occupied the largest market in Korean medical tourism in 2012, as Korean shopping is well developed.

In spite of shopping being selected as a major tourism activity which medical tourists can enjoy, three interview participants pointed out the lack of infrastructure which medical tourists can enjoy for recuperative purposes, as Participant 6 argues that “In fact, Korea does not have enough holiday infrastructures which medical tourists can enjoy during the post-care period. Medical tourists visit Korea with the purpose of improving health and relaxation. However, even though Korea has well-developed shopping areas, there is a lack of places for relaxation and recuperation, such as spas or massages.”

In Thailand, the spa and holiday services are well established and have been internationally and domestically promoted [ 74 ]. Further, Bumrungrab hospital, a major hospital treating medical tourists in Thailand, has yoga facilities which medical tourists or their companions can enjoy. Wang [ 75 ] also recommended that medical tourism destinations establish healthcare services and programs which provide memorable and relaxing holidays. The primary purpose of participating in medical tourism is health improvement and thus the service providers need to offer extra activities which medical tourists can enjoy to improve their health; Participant 23 strongly suggested that “We need to establish an infrastructure which provides various ranges of health care programs such as spa, fitness center and meditation centers.”

6.3. Follow up Care

Follow-up care was identified as the major success factor by 18 out of the 28 respondents. Follow-up care is offered in two ways: online or in the local hospitals. Online follow-up care includes administration by email, Skype or telephone, and six medical tourism health providers have partnerships with local hospitals. Concerns over a lack of continuous care is one of the challenges of medical tourism, because medical tourists normally return to their home countries after one or two weeks of a brief recovery period is complete [ 6 , 30 , 50 ]. If unexpected side effects or results arise when they are in their home countries, it is difficult for medical tourists to access immediate medical attention, and it requires a lot of physical, mental, and financial commitment and where-with-all to visit the doctor who performed the surgery [ 30 ]. In order to overcome these challenges, a few Korean hospitals have partnerships with home-country hospitals, which help medical tourists to more readily access an immediate diagnosis of unexpected results or side effects. Some Korean physicians, especially plastic surgery specialists, go to these home-county partnership hospitals on weekends to provide support medical services. According to Davies and Han [ 76 ], not only do Korean plastic surgeons go to Chinese-owned clinics to provide medical services, but from 2005 onwards, they also own and operate clinics in Shanghai and Beijing. For example, Participant 22 mentioned that:

“We have a partnership with a hospital in Japan, which operates franchisees in Japan. In China, we opened a branch in last year, 2012. Chinese specialists had trained in the main hospital in Korea, and there are also Korean specialists in China. As opening a plastic surgery branch in China, Chinese medical tourists who are required follow up care can receive it in their home countries more comfortably. Moreover, medical tourists can receive Korean medical surgeries in their home countries because there are Chinese specialists who trained in the main hospital and Korean specialists as well.”

Not every interviewee, however, showed positive attitudes towards having partnerships with the local hospitals. For example, Participant 18 mentioned that:

“Medical tourists are not from one region in countries. Even though we have a partnership with a hospital in east China, it is too far for medical tourists in west China to go for follow-up care. Therefore, we have contact with medical tourists by online or telephone and if they need, we advise them to go the nearest hospital in their home town. With these reasons, we give detailed specialists’ notes to medical tourists when they leave for their home countries.”

The sizes of China and Russia make it financially and logically prohibitive to form partnerships with local hospitals in all districts, especially as medical tourists could come from anywhere in these countries to Korea. Therefore, even though Korean hospitals have partnerships with a few hospitals in China and Russia, not every medical tourist can go to these partnership hospitals. Johnston, Crooks and Snyder [ 7 ] also presented a similar finding, that Canadian medical tourists are likely to go to family doctors for some degree of diagnosis when they return to their home countries.

The importance of follow-up care was demonstrated by Pickert [ 77 ], who stated that the American Medical Association introduced a set of guidelines for medical tourism that included proper follow-up care, and thus Korean medical tourism needs to establish more systematic follow-up programs to reduce post-treatment concerns which dissuade medical tourists from leaving their home-county to access medical treatment.

6.4. The Effect of Hallyu

Hallyu, which is also referred to by some as the Korean Wave, refers to “the phenomenon of Korean pop culture, such as TV dramas, films, pop music, fashion and online games being widely embraced and shared among the people of Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other Asian countries” [ 78 ] (p.115). The word Hallyu was first mentioned by the Chinese mass media in 2002, but Hallyu was enthusiastically embraced from 2003 when a Korean drama named ‘Winter Sonata’ was first shown in Japan [ 56 ]. Beginning with the success of ‘Winter Sonata’, more Korean dramas have been marketed directly to other Asian countries. Hallyu has directly increased sales from Korean drama exports and has indirectly positively influenced Korean tourism [ 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 ].

The huge effect of Hallyu is not limited to the mainstream Korean tourism industry because 14 responses mentioned Hallyu as the major reason for the increasing numbers of medical tourists in Korea. Hallyu has influenced Korean medical tourism in two specific ways; the awareness of and familiarity with Korea has increased, and surgically beautified celebrities have endorsed Korean plastic surgery. Firstly, as Hallyu has spread to other Asian countries, the awareness of Korean culture has increased and people feel a closer familiarity to Korea [ 82 , 83 ]. Since familiarity with destinations is a facilitator for potential medical tourists to select a country [ 14 ], a closer familiarity and the increased awareness of Korea through Hallyu positively affects Korean medical tourism [ 67 ]. Moreover, the representatives from plastic surgery hospitals explained that some young or middle-aged women who enjoy watching Korean TV programs and films have the desire to look like Korean celebrities. Furthermore, receiving plastic surgery is not a hidden fact anymore in Korea. It is common to present surgically modified celebrities in testament to particular hospitals [ 76 ]. In other words, Korean celebrities help endorse plastic surgery, which attracts potential medical tourists to participate in Korean medical tourism, as Participant 1 explains:

“Hallyu standardized the criteria of beauty, which means that people in other countries (Asia) also have similar views about beauty. Potential medical tourists, who yearn to look like Korean celebrities, have intention to access plastic surgery in Korea where the celebrities live. Moreover, plastic surgery has become common in Korea, and people do not hush up the fact that they received the surgeries. I think this trend has spread to other countries through Hallyu, and thus people in other countries have been more interested in Korean plastic surgery.”

This interesting result of Hallyu as a phenomenon is recognized in a number of Asian countries, encouraging participation in Korean plastic surgery, especially from China. As income has risen in China, interest in beauty has also increased [ 84 ]. Ford [ 84 ] further explained the reasons for the popularity of Korean plastic surgery in China, as there being more experienced specialists and more developed techniques in Korea than in China. Moreover, since most Asians have similar cosmetic goals, Korean specialists and Chinese medical tourists find it easier to communicate [ 84 ]. Participant 18 also stated the reasons for the popularity of Korean plastic surgery in China were geographical closeness and the positive changes in Chinese perceptions toward plastic surgery, mentioning that “Hallyu occurs in various Asian countries. However, the Chinese especially visit Korea for plastic surgery because China is near Korea, as well as I think Chinese perceptions toward plastic surgery have changed positively.”

6.5. Extra Support for Patients

Korean medical tourism service providers have provided extra services including lower prices for accommodation and pick-up services as well as introducing sightseeing possibilities. Two hospitals provide Russian broadcasts for Russian patients, and another two hospitals provide companion meals together when offering the patients’ meals. The importance of extra support for the patients’ convenience supports the conclusion by Han and Hyun [ 85 ], arguing the critical role of medical and service quality in customers satisfaction.

Wang [ 75 ] recommended that medical centers link with hotels or tourism agencies to offer all-inclusive holiday packages including pick-up services, accommodation, shopping and/or sightseeing. Korean medical tourism has partly developed partnerships between hospitals and hotels [ 86 , 87 ]; however, there is a lack of partnership with tourism agencies, which would be necessary to provide all-inclusive holiday packages. The service providers also have recognized a lack of partnerships with tourism agencies, as Participant 24 mentioned that “Mostly, hospitals do airport pick up services because there is a lack of medical tourism agencies which treat medical tourists systemically.”

6.6. Government Investment

The Korean government’s active involvement and investment in the medical tourism industry was selected as another major factor in attracting medical tourists. The Korean government determined medical tourism as a new growth engine industry in 2009 and has actively invested in the industry by regulating policies supporting the industry and promoting high medical services abroad. For example, Participant 21 strongly argued that “The primary factor increasing the number of medical tourists is the government’s investments in the industry. The government has invested and actively promoted Korean medical tourism since 2009 and is calling the industry a new growth engine industry”.

The importance of the government’s participation in developing medical tourism has been strongly identified in other destinations as well, such as Malaysia, Croatia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand [ 4 , 6 , 32 , 36 ]. The governments in the major medical tourism destinations regard the medical tourism trade as an important resource for economic and social development and, similarly, Korea has identified the medical tourism industry as the new growth engine industry. In order to reduce entry barriers for medical tourists and increase medical tourists’ inflow, the Korean government introduced medical visas similar to the ones introduced by other major medical tourism destinations such as Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia [ 22 ]. Compared to the Korean government, governments in other major destinations have provided more active financial support. The Malaysian government has provided tax incentives or material incentives for setting up international patient units and for expenses incurred in receiving international accreditation such as JCI [ 49 ]. When Singapore planned to establish itself as a ‘Biomedical Hub’ in the 1990s, the government offered various incentives to the biomedical industry, such as low corporate tax rates or low personal income tax rates, which helped develop medical tourism [ 25 ]. Skountridaki [ 88 ] explained that the reasons why these countries consider the industry as an important sector in terms of enabling the diversification of their economies are that it attracts foreign investment, promotes job creation, builds the health services industry, and prevents the outflow of healthcare providers to wealthier nations.

6.7. Advances in Korea Branding

Moreover, advanced Korean brand power is also attracting medical tourists; as Participant 11 mentioned, “Korea has experienced advanced international position caused by Hallyu as well as major Korean companies such as Samsung and LG. These various factors positively shape the image toward Korea for potential medical tourists”. This advanced brand power includes a higher international position generally in the IT and mobile phone industry, as well as establishing a stronger brand name for plastic surgery in the medical tourism industry. Interbrand, which is the world’s leading brand consultancy, announced that Samsung entered the global top ten brands by taking the sixth position, and Hyundai and Kia entered the global top 100 brands category [ 89 ]. Lee and Jang [ 60 ] suggested that the success of Samsung’s Galaxy series smart phone and TV attributed to the growth in Samsung’s brand value. This advanced brand power has shaped the image of Korea and this can positively impact potential medical tourists to select the destination [ 90 , 91 ] because the major destinations, of which most are developing countries, have suffered from negative perceptions about health services in these countries. Social and cultural compatibility is also an important factor in destination selection for medical tourists [ 35 , 43 ].

Korean medical tourism has established a strong brand name for plastic surgery. Davies and Han [ 76 ] also mentioned that Korean plastic surgery is a superior brand in China, and Lee [ 92 ] highlighted the popularity of plastic surgery in Korean medical tourism. Participant 10 described this, saying “Korea has established brand identity for plastic surgery, which makes people believe that receiving plastic surgery in Korea will be successful”. According to Lee [ 92 ], Korea has the world’s highest rate of plastic surgery, and this may produce high plastic surgery skills in Korea. Korean medical tourism provides various medical services, such as traditional Korean medicine, health screening, internal medicine, orthopedics, ophthalmology and dentistry. The reason, however, why Korean medical tourism has specialized in plastic surgery can be explained by the effects of Hallyu and high plastic surgery skills.

According to Cook [ 31 ], major medical tourism destinations have invested time and money in establishing a brand name which is similar to the reputation of products; for example, wellness tourism and gender reassignment surgery in Thailand or orthopedic and cardiac surgery in India. Establishing a reputation for plastic surgery in Korea can differentiate it from other major destinations in the very competitive medical tourism industry.

7. Conclusions

This study explored the key success factors of medical tourism with a case study about Korea. Overall, Korean medical tourism has gained a competitive advantage among other destinations, with the effect of Hallyu and Korean brand power which both generates credibility to Korean medical skills. Hallyu has increased familiarity with Korea and had a positive impact by increasing the number of medical tourists, particularly for plastic surgery. Advanced Korean brand power, such as Samsung, has positively shaped the image of Korea. In addition, Korean medical tourism gains a competitive advantage not only through satisfying medical tourists seeking medical treatment at a reasonable price, but also generates customer values such as providing tourism activities for companions and follow-up care, which is a concern for potential medical tourists mainly concern. In order to reduce medical tourists’ concerns regarding follow-up care, service providers have continuous contact with medical tourists online and through home-county partnership hospitals provide medical support for tourists in their home countries.

While some research on medical tourism investigated the industry from the demand side, such as consumer behaviors [ 50 ], this study is distinctive because it investigates Korean medical tourism from the supply side. Moreover, although there are many studies exploring the challenges in medical tourism, such as concerns about follow-up care and cultural differences, there was little research emphasizing the service providers’ efforts to reduce the challenges. The results in this study address a gap in the literature in finding the service providers’ efforts to overcome the identified challenges. Practically, this study generated results which are valuable for the representatives of the medical tourism industry. Medical tourism representatives in the countries where the industry is in the initial stages can consult the findings to develop the industry.

While this study addressed the research gap and provided valuable findings for the medical tourism industry, there are still several limitations. To explore Korean medical tourism from the service providers’ perspectives is one aspect of understanding this phenomenon. It is hoped that to investigate the industry from practical medical tourists’ views or other service providers’ perspectives, such as insurance companies and related accommodation should be useful future research. Moreover, it may be also valuable to focus on a specific group of the service providers or a specific medical department. Moreover, based on the results in this study, comparative analysis between Korean medical tourism and medical tourism in other major countries such as Thailand, India, Singapore or Malaysia can be used for future studies by using online narratives of medical tourists to Korea.

Author Contributions

The research presented in this paper was carried out as a collaborative effort among the three authors. The first author, S.K., contributed to the interpretation and discussion of all results. C.A. supported in conceptualization, review and editing of this paper. I.K. contributed to the writing review and editing of this paper and project administration.

This research received no external funding.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Business of Well-being

South korea, a medical tourism service leader pioneering the future of medicine.

Why Medical Tourism in South Korea?

South Korea (or simply Korea) is an IT leader that excels in the digital era of the 21st century. Simultaneously, the country has benefited from Hallyu (a Korean wave), an explosion in the global popularity of Korea across all industries, including fashion, food, and, entertainment such as K-pop and K-drama. Furthermore, Korea has emerged as a medical tourism powerhouse, setting off medical Hallyu, showing its strong capacity to be a global medical leader. With state-of-the-art medical equipment, smart IT-based medical technologies, smart hospitals, and innovative treatments, Korea has become a hotspot for doctors. Professional medical tour agencies registered with the Ministry of Health and Welfare provide reliable medical tour services, ranging from airport pickups to hospitalizations, treatments, surgeries, and tours. Plus, the Korean government runs an international medical tour coordinator license program to raise the satisfaction levels of medical tourists.

The biggest advantage of Korean medical tours is the convergence of medical science and IT. Korean general hospitals' transplantations, robotic surgeries, and endoscopic operations have best-in-class quality compared to other medical tourist destinations. In particular, Korea's cancer survival rate is more than double the average among OECD countries, thereby boasting a world-class standard.

Korea's world-class medical services can be verified by statistical analysis of medical data. The rate of adoption of the electronic medical record (EMR) system by Korean medical institutions is among the highest globally. In an index that assesses robotic endoscopic surgery, medical equipment, diagnostic system, and medical systems, Korea ranks second worldwide, further establishing its position as a medical powerhouse.

Integrated Internal Medicine

Korea is considered an international leader in cancer treatment. Four out of the top 20 hospitals in the world for cancer treatment are based in Korea (including the fifth-ranked hospital). Additionally, hospitals, universities, and various research institutes in the country are dedicated to new medical technologies used for cancer treatment.

Many foreign patients who come to Korea receive robotic surgeries to treat various cancers, including colorectal and stomach cancer. The survival rate of patients with major cancers in Korea is the highest globally The five-year survival rate of stomach cancer patients is 77% in Korea, which is two or three times higher than that of the US (32.4%) and UK (21.6%). Plus, approximately 1,000 doctors worldwide apply for medical training in Korea to learn the country's integrated cancer treatment systems, including integrated precision medicine platforms that leverage clinical data on cancer patients, in addition to robotic surgeries.

Korean cancer centers provide one-stop-shop services supporting prevention, testing, treatment, rehabilitation, and follow-up management. University hospitals, general hospitals, and 12 government-designated cancer centers offer the world’s best-in-class cancer treatments. Moreover, patients can receive similarly comprehensive services for other major internal diseases.

Plastic Surgery

With the Hallyu boom led by K-pop and K-drama worldwide, Korea is leading global beauty trends. For foreigners who aspire to K-beauty, getting plastic surgery in Korea has become a turning point in their lives, superseding a simple medical procedure.

Korea is a leader in the plastic surgery sector, with a share of 25% of the global beauty market. Korea's plastic surgery technology has become a global standard, with Korean plastic surgeons writing medical textbooks for the rest of the world on the subject. In particular, Korea's facial liposuction technology used to create a V-shaped facial line without reshaping the bones is unmatched. It’s no surprise that the country recorded the largest number of facial liposuction cases in the world. Furthermore, Korea offers a reliable medical environment for patients, such as cameras installed in operating rooms and the disclosure of the names of medical staff members who participate in the surgeries. In addition, differentiated services, including beauty classes and cultural programs for foreigners, are also offered.

Cosmetic surgery is divided into invasive surgery, which cuts or punctures the skin, and minimally-invasive or non-invasive surgery, which uses injections, laser, or ultrasonic waves. Minimally-invasive, or non-invasive surgery, which is more affordable and carries less risk of side effects, is increasingly popular amongst patients in their 20s and 30s who want instant yet natural-looking results.

Dermatology

Korean celebrities are known for their flawless and beautiful skin, so Korea's dermatology treatment and skincare know-how have garnered much attention. Dermatology clinics in Korea provide customized medical services through scientific skin diagnosis while offering total beauty care services from consultation and examination to operation and recovery.

Korea boasts the world-renowned stem cell technology, which has anti-aging and immunity-boosting effects. As skincare services demand from oversea patients grows, the Korean government has launched a program whereby Korean health and medical practitioners can work abroad. With this, many doctors and specialists in aesthetic procedures and post-procedural management have entered international markets.

Dermatology treatment is primarily divided into dermal laser treatment and skin care treatment. Laser treatment is administered after a customized analysis of skin type. Thereafter, skincare treatment follows. Recently whitening, wrinkle care, filler injection for neck wrinkles, and skin regeneration treatments have been popular.

Physical Examination Center

Korea's physical examination system is becoming more prominent as the importance of prevention, early diagnosis, and timely treatment of severe diseases grows globally. Korea ranks first in terms of its EMR system adoption rate by medical institutions.  It offers a one-stop shop encompassing a full spectrum of services from examination to treatment. Korea provides rapid examination and precise reading through customized physical examinations and state-of-the-art medical equipment. Once a disease is discovered, patients are referred to specialized hospitals. All this helps the public live longer and healthier lives.

Korea is the only country that provides citizens with physical examinations throughout their life. According to the Global Health Security Index, Korea ranked fifth among 194 countries worldwide in terms of disease detection, leading the effort to prevent diseases. The rate of Korean hospitals that own magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices is more than double the OECD average, placing Korea fourth among OECD countries. Also, the country has a digital medical system whereby users can conveniently book physical examinations, answer questionnaires before the examination, and check the result with their mobile phones.

‍ Physical examination programs are divided into basic, in-depth, and premium programs. Hospitals specialized in physical examinations have separate wards for locals, foreigners, and VIPs for stay-in examinations. These specialized physical examination programs are particularly preferred by foreign patients since they can receive top-level comprehensive physical examinations at a ward that is of five-star hotel quality and get one-on-one assistance from coordinators.

To learn more about medical tourism in South Korea, you can visit the following virtual booth that belongs to the KoreanTourism Organization (KTO).

You can also learn about the cost-saving potentials of medical tourism for employers for free at this year’s Healthcare Revolution conference. Check out KTO's sponsored session here .

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Medical tourism in South Korea

Statistics report on medical tourism in South Korea

This report provides key information about medical tourism in South Korea. It includes key facts on the development of tourist arrivals, preferred medical treatments, regional characteristics, and consumer behavior.

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Table of contents.

• Premium Statistic Number of visitor arrivals in South Korea 2000-2023
• Premium Statistic Visitors in South Korea 2022, by purpose
• Basic Statistic Actual number of medical tourists travelling to South Korea 2009-2022
• Premium Statistic Reasons for inbound medical tourism South Korea 2022
• Premium Statistic Satisfaction of medical services among foreign patients South Korea 2015-2022

Tourist arrivals

• Premium Statistic Medical tourists in South Korea in 2022, by country of origin
• Premium Statistic Number of U.S. American medical tourists South Korea 2009-2022
• Premium Statistic Number of Chinese medical tourists South Korea 2009-2022
• Premium Statistic Number of Japanese medical tourists South Korea 2009-2022
• Premium Statistic Number of Thai medical tourists South Korea 2009-2022
• Premium Statistic Number of Vietnamese medical tourists South Korea 2009-2022

Medical treatment

• Premium Statistic Distribution of medical tourists in South Korea in 2022, by department
• Premium Statistic Number of foreign patients at internal medicine department South Korea 2012-2022
• Premium Statistic Foreign plastic surgery patient number South Korea 2009-2022
• Premium Statistic Foreign dermatology patient number South Korea 2012-2022
• Premium Statistic Foreign health checkup patient number South Korea 2012-2022
• Premium Statistic Foreign orthopedic patient number South Korea 2012-2022

Regional characteristics

• Premium Statistic Satisfaction of medical services among foreign patients South Korea 2022, by region
• Premium Statistic Number of medical tourists from the U.S. to South Korea 2022, by department
• Premium Statistic Number of Chinese medical tourists to South Korea 2022, by department
• Premium Statistic Number of Japanese medical tourists to South Korea 2022, by department
• Premium Statistic Number of Thai medical tourists South Korea 2022, by department
• Premium Statistic Number of Vietnamese medical tourists South Korea 2022, by department

Consumer behavior

• Premium Statistic Information channels of medical tourists in South Korea 2022
• Premium Statistic Average medical services expense per medical tourist South Korea 2022, by origin
• Premium Statistic Medical tourists' payment methods for medical expenses South Korea 2022
• Premium Statistic Number of travel companions of medical tourists South Korea 2017-2022
• Premium Statistic Medical tourists recommending medical services in South Korea 2022

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