Medical Tourism Complex Planned
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
A spacious healthcare complex will be built near Seogwipo City, Jeju Island. Completion is aimed for 2011, according to the Jeju Free International City Development Center (JDC).
The healthcare town is aimed at foreign patients seeking high-end medical treatment and senior citizens wishing to lead healthy lifestyles during their retirement.
The town, which will consist of three core facilities ― R&D Park, Medical Park and Wellness Park ― will be five kilometers away from downtown Seogwipo, and a 50 minute drive from Jeju International Airport.
Featuring a cutting-edge healthcare town, Jeju, already a renowned tourist hot spot, seeks to be a major player in the Asian medical tourism industry.
According to Research and Markets, a provider of international market resources and market data, more than 2.9 million patients visited Thailand, India, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines last year to receive medical treatment.
In its recently released report, titled ``Asian Tourism: Analysis (2008-2012),'' it said that the Asia region has generated revenues worth $3.4 billion, accounting for approximately 12.7 percent of the global market.
The report said the demand for medical tourism in the region will grow in the future as ``the ageing population in the industrialized world puts an extra demand on an already overburdened health infrastructure,'' and is predicted to create huge opportunities in the Asian medical tourism market.
Thailand, a frontrunner in medical tourism in Asia, said that 40 percent of its visitors were medical tourists. The Southeast Asian country plans to attract as many as 1.28 million foreign patients by 2025.
Singapore has set a goal of attracting 1 million foreign patients by 2012.
Spurred by the success in these countries, Jeju recently jumped on the medical tourism bandwagon by unveiling its blueprint to attract foreigners, mainly Chinese and Japanese, to its planned medical tourism complex.
JDC said the facilities will include several sections, such as medical facilities, lodging, a retreat, and shopping.
A total of 315 billion won has been set aside to complete the mammoth project.
JDC plans to transform the southern island into a major Northeast Asia medical tourism site, attracting not only quality hospitals and tourists, but also investors.