Foreign medical tourists flock to Korean clinics
/Yonhap
By Lee Jin-a
While the number of foreign tourists who receive medical treatment in Korea is increasing, patients have different reasons for it by country, figures show.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Monday the total number of foreigners who visited Korea for treatment was 266,501 in 2014. China was top with 79,481 people, followed by the U.S., Russia and Japan.
Most Chinese medical tourists, or 28 percent, came for plastic surgery.
Most patients from the U.S. and Russia - 26 percent and 33 percent, respectively - visited Korea for internal medical treatments. The largest number of Japanese tourists - 28 percent - headed to oriental medicine clinics.
“Many American tourists come to Korea to receive medical treatment because Korea provides a high-quality medical service with relatively low prices,” said Han Dong-woo, the chief of the Medical Care Global Marketing Support Bureau at the Korea Health Industry Development Institute, according to the Korea Economic Daily.