Cooperation essential for success of medical tourism

Korea is emerging as a major destination for medical tourism, offering its cutting-edge medical technology, quality medical personnel and services.

The aim is that medical tourist arrivals will rise 16 percent annually from 80,000 in 2010 to 1 million in 2020.

“Korea is equipped with many favorable conditions such as advanced medical technology, a high number of cutting edge medical instruments, and price competitiveness even though we were a late starter compared to Thailand and Singapore, which started medical tourism about 10 years ago,”said Park Jae-hee, doctor and president of Samsung Line Plastic Surgery.

Every country is in severe competition to attract more Chinese tourists, Park said.

“The work for regulating the medical tourism is necessary by organizing a task force department in the government. The mutual cooperation method shall be derived by expanding the consensus for fostering the medical tourism based on the various seminars held by hospitals in the district, company of inducing, academy and related authorities,” Park said.

Private and government organizations are now building up an impressive one-stop infrastructure to serve tourists.

They include better services in entry, accommodations, food, guides and marketing.

The government plans to improve and expand acceptance of Chinese tourists, and establish diversified policies to acquire competitiveness in the Chinese tourism market.

It is reported that these tourists spend anywhere between several thousands to tens of thousands of dollars per capita and most of them are interested in plastic surgery.

The rapid rise in requests for plastic surgery is largely attributed to the success of Korean culture in other countries, dubbed the “Korea Wave,” and the popularity of K-pop singers and movie actors. The recipients simply want to look like their stars.

Specifically, the main area of interest has been expanding from eye and nose surgery to facial alteration and liposuction recently.