Foreign Medical Spending in Korea Tops 200 Billion Won for 5th Month, Seoul Concentration Remains a Challenge
Creatrip Team
20 days ago
Foreign visitors to South Korea spent over 200 billion won on medical services for the fifth consecutive month in July, with total medical spending reaching 213 billion won (up 66.5% year‑on‑year). China led by nationality (about 57.7 billion won), followed by the U.S., Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore. By sector, dermatology accounted for 54.9% of spending, plastic surgery 19.3%, pharmacies 12.7% (notably rising from under 5% last year to double digits this year), general/university hospitals 6.5%, dentistry 4.0%, and ophthalmology 1.5%. Experts say Korea’s strong medical reputation and multilingual patient services helped stabilize medical tourism, with practices like completing basic dental work at home and key procedures in Korea becoming common. However, medical spending is heavily concentrated in Seoul (86.8%), prompting calls to reduce regional imbalance by promoting “medical tourism” (surgery and procedures) in Seoul and strengthening “healthcare tourism” (health management and traditional Korean medicine (hanbang)) in other regions.
