Medical tourism to South Korea rebounds strongly despite ongoing health crisis

A medical tourism support center at the arrivals area of Seoul International Airport. (Source: Yonhap)

Medical tourism to Korea is recovering strongly. In particular, the medical services most sought by foreign tourists traveling to Korea for medical treatment are not only focusing on cosmetic surgery and dermatology but are shifting to dentistry and ophthalmology.

On March 26, Creatrip, a platform that provides all information for foreign tourists to Korea, announced the results of statistics on the current status of medical service usage by foreign tourists based on transaction data from its medical tourism product reservation service and predicted the trend of the medical tourism industry in 2024.

That said, the most popular medical service among foreign tourists by far is “cosmetic surgery.”

According to the analysis of medical tourism products served by Creatrip in January-February 2024, cosmetic surgery ranked first among hospitals and clinics, with the number of transactions and transaction amount increasing by 220% and 270% respectively compared to the same period in 2023.

Tourists mainly choose to undergo minor surgeries that require short recovery times, such as fillers, botox, and facelifts. Taiwanese tourists in particular show overwhelming demand for this type of service, accounting for 77% of the total.

Dermatology is expected to see a sharp increase in interest in 2024 compared to the previous year. Bookings for skin treatments through Creatrip showed a dramatic increase, 830% higher than the same period last year. Acne treatments, exfoliation and hair removal are the main treatments.

The proportion of Japanese tourists making appointments at dermatology clinics accounted for 40% of the total, indicating that Japanese tourists prefer medical tourism products related to skin care over other products.

Additionally, dentistry and ophthalmology are also emerging as popular products in the medical tourism sector.

In the first two months of 2024 alone, dental-related bookings increased by about 450% year-on-year, and transaction volume also increased by about 400%.

Notably, this is a type of service where tourists from Western countries such as the US and Europe account for about 35% of bookings, surpassing the usage rate of Asian tourists.

The demand for eye-related care and surgery is also increasing. Due to the nature of vision correction surgery, which has a relatively quick recovery time, little impact on travel activities even after surgery, and also provides post-operative care services, medical tourism products related to ophthalmology in Korea are also attracting the attention of foreign tourists because of their high safety.

Creatrip CEO Lim Hye-min said that so far, the Korean medical tourism market has focused on plastic surgery and dermatology, but trends show that foreign tourists are increasingly using products related to dentistry and ophthalmology.

In the future, Creatrip will continue to monitor the needs of foreign tourists to increase accessibility and meet customer needs.

The South Korean medical industry is in crisis with a nationwide strike by trainee doctors that has lasted for more than a month, starting on February 19.

About 90 percent of South Korea’s 13,000 medical trainees have quit their jobs in protest of the government’s decision to increase enrollment in medical schools, leading to the cancellation or delay of surgeries and other public health services at major hospitals.

The mass resignation of trainee doctors has caused disruptions in medical services and seriously affected the operations of several major general hospitals in Korea./.

According to vietnamplus.vn

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/du-lich-y-te-den-han-quoc-phuc-hoi-manh-bat-chap-khung-hoang-y-te-dang-dien-ra-post936765.vnp

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