Characteristics of cosmetic medical tourism in Korea

This review explores strategies to promote medical tourism in Korea through assessing the characteristics of cosmetic medical tourism selection by nationality, visiting clinics, and consumption tendency. It also discusses several issues regarding the medical tourism market in Korea, such as patient safety, patient satisfaction, medical visas, tax refunds, and legal aspects. The author reviewed articles that involved the cosmetic medical tourism in korea and summarized their findings. In 2015, the number of foreign pathients was 296,889, registering an increase of 11.1% compared to that of the previous year. This increasing trend has been registered since 2009, with an overall increase of 30.5% between 2009 and 2015. The number of registered medical institutions was 3,013 and that of medical tourism agencies 1,666 in 2016. In 2015, cosmetic surgery reported the highest total amount of medical costs from foreign patients, followed by internal medicine, general surgery, and medical checkups in this order. The government of South Korea supports medical tourism policies through programs that include the accreditation of medical institutions, issuance of medical visas, tax refunds, and assistance for medical dispute resolution. Recently, in an effort to support medical tourism through a systematic approach, the institution of MEDICAL KOREA was established in 2016. Various measures taken by the government are expected to help activate and promote medical tourism by ensuring quality medical services to be provided to medical tourists