Participants take part in the 3rd International Medical Travel Conference at the COEX InterContinental Hotel in Seoul, Thursday. The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) and Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) are co-hosting the annual event to attract more medical tourists from overseas. / Courtesy of KTO |
By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
The increase in international recognition of Korea's medical skills is essential to the attraction of more medical tourists, a survey showed Thursday.
Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) and Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) announced the interim result of their survey regarding medical travel in Asia and Korea during the International Medical Travel Conference, held in Seoul from Wednesday through Friday.
The research was conducted on foreigners who had visited or planned to visit Korea or other Asian nations on medical tours. The final result will come at the end of this year. The survey showed medical tour visitors put more weight on the quality of hospital staff, reliability of institutions and cost savings than the condition of facilities and equipment.
The surveyed showed 75.8 percent of medical tourists in Asia mainly came for medical skin care when multiple answers were allowed, followed by Oriental medicine and health checkups.
``Besides Japan, no country in Asia showed dominance in terms of recognition level of medical tourism, indicating that Korea can become a major player in healthcare tourism if it becomes competitive in service, but it is also possible for the country to fall behind if it fails to do so,'' Ohm Kyong-sop, KTO vice president for tourism technology, said in a press conference.
Among medical tour visitors to Korea, 80.3 percent were satisfied with the healthcare, with medical skin care showing the highest satisfaction level, 87 percent, while Oriental medicine showed a relatively low level at 72.2 percent.
``Satisfaction levels were higher than expectation levels, meaning people visit Korea without high expectations but are satisfied after receiving medical service,'' Ohm said, adding ``word of mouth'' through visitors will be essential to promotion.
He said medical travel is a value-added program that will be a new growth engine for the nation's tourism industry. ``Despite its high quality, Korea's medical tours have low recognition. We'll improve basic service and help exchanges between domestic and foreign medical institutions and travel agencies,'' Ohm said.
Lee Shin-ho, KHIDI executive director for industry support, said the number of foreign patients has increased to 40,000 as of this November from 16,000 last year. ``The government seeks to revise the Medical Law to facilitate medical tours, such as allowing hospitals to promote themselves. Korea's medical tourism will be competitive when such systems are prepared,'' Lee said.
Dedric Lam, CEO of Avail Corp., the organizer of the international conference, said, ``I was impressed by Korea's world-class healthcare facilities and the diversity of their offerings to medical travelers.'' He advised Korea to develop specific healthcare systems exclusively for foreigners to develop its medical tourism business.
The annual conference provided those engaged in medical tourism with a chance to discuss and exchange knowledge of medical travel. Some 300 from 16 countries took part in the Seoul meeting.
rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr
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