South Korea (“Korea”) is an IT leader pioneering the digital age in the 21st century. At the same time, the country has launched hallyu (Korean wave) across all sectors, including fashion, food and content such as K-pop and K-drama. Moreover, Korea has also emerged as a medical tourism hub, demonstrating its strong capacity to lead the medical industry as well by creating medical hallyu. With state-of-the-art medical equipment, smart IT-based medical technologies, smart hospitals and innovative treatments, Korea has become the “cradle of doctors”.
Home of Cutting Edge Medical Treatments
Korea has the world’s highest cancer survival rate thanks to innovative cancer treatment technology. Korea is a world-renowned leader in cancer treatment. The five-year survival rate for stomach cancer patients is 77% in Korea, two or three times that of the US (32.4%) and the UK (21.6%). Three of the top 20 global hospitals for cancer treatment are located in Korea. In addition, hospitals, universities and various research institutes in the country are dedicated to new medical technologies used in cancer treatment.
Many foreign patients coming to Korea receive robotic surgeries to treat various cancers, including colorectal cancer and stomach cancer. In addition, about 1,000 doctors from around the world are applying to study medicine in Korea to learn about the country’s integrated cancer treatment systems, including integrated precision medicine platforms and robotic surgeries that use clinical data of cancer patients.
Korean cancer centers provide one-stop services that support prevention, testing, treatment, rehabilitation and follow-up management. University hospitals and general hospitals and 12 government-designated cancer centers offer the world’s best cancer treatments. Patients can also receive the same one-stop service for major internal diseases in addition to cancer treatment.
South Korea is also home to some of the world’s best orthopedic centers, ranking fifth in the world for the number of spine disease research papers and high success rates recorded in complex orthopedic procedures.
Four of the top 30 hospitals for orthopedic treatments are located in Korea. The world’s top nine orthopedic centers are also located in Korea.
Creating a Global Medical Tourism Center
Korea is pushing the boundaries of medicine and healthcare and providing the best available care in various specialties. Moreover, Korea is rebranding medical travel and establishing global medical travel departments in many of its top medical centers and clinics to meet the global backlog demand for care. Korea is also offering these cutting-edge treatments at affordable prices. For example, compared to the United States ($40,364), the cost of hip replacement in South Korea is almost 30 percent cheaper at $25,000. Also, while a knee replacement costs $35,000 and a facelift about $11,000, these procedures can be done in Korea for $20,000 and $6,000 respectively.
This has translated into a steady flow of medical tourists over the past decade, with more than 497,464 foreign patients visiting Korea before the pandemic in 2019 and more than 600,000 international patients traveling to Korea for medical care in 2023. Korea has a well-established medical tourism sector with world-class healthcare facilities with dedicated international patient centers. Korea has professional medical tourism agencies registered with the Ministry of Health and Welfare that provide reliable medical tour services from airport pickups to hospitalizations, treatments, surgeries and tours.
The Korean government also runs an international medical tour coordinator licensing program to improve the patient experience for medical tourists. The Korea Tourism Organization is continuously working with global partners, especially the Medical Tourism Association (MTA), to expand the medical tourism industry, attract more medical payers, and provide world-class medical care to medical tourists worldwide.
About Korea Tourism Organization (KTO)
The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) is an organization of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST). It is tasked with promoting the country’s tourism industry. The KTO was established in 1962 as a government-invested company responsible for the South Korean tourism industry under the International Tourism Corporation Act. The organization promotes Korea as a tourism destination to attract foreign tourists. Starting in the 1980s, domestic tourism promotion also became a function of the KTO. Inbound visitors exceeded 17 million in 2019 (17,502,756 visitors) and the tourism industry is one of the largest contributors to the Korean economy.
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