As people are paying increasing attention to health and tourism, the Korean government recently designated the medical tourism industry as the 17th new growth industry in the nation. In order to attract foreign patients, not only the central governmen...
As people are paying increasing attention to health and tourism, the Korean government recently designated the medical tourism industry as the 17th new growth industry in the nation. In order to attract foreign patients, not only the central government but also local governments and companies are making lots of efforts. However, many of Chinese people visiting Korea on medical tour are choosing private hospitals over large-scale medical institutions. This study, therefore sought strategies that can boost the number of Chinese medical tourists visiting large-scale medical institutions in Korea. While previous studies on medical tourism mainly discussed the problems with domestic medical tourism and the attraction of medical tourists, this study looked into strategies that can increase the number of Chinese medical tourists who visit Korea frequently and whose nation is geographically close to Korea, with putting a focus on large-scale medical institutions, rather than covering a broad scope of medical tourism. In Korea, as health care services are still considered as a public area, the effort to attract medical tourists is not being made aggressively, encountering various kinds of restrictions. The medical tourism market has an unlimited potential. In Asia, only a few nations that boast advanced level of medicine are capable of targeting the huge medical tourism market of developed nations. If the central government's aggressive support, local governments' active attitudes and private organizations' and medical institutions' firm determination are integrated to boost the nation's medical tourism industry, the industry will exert an effect that fits with its title ‘the nation's new growth engine.' Medical tourism, the blue ocean of the tourism industry, is not only the high value added industry but also has a great market potential. Therefore, if Korea resolves the problems of its medical tourism and combines tourism and medicine effectively, it will be able to increase its share in the global medical tourism market. Currently, the nation is making various efforts to develop the medical tourism industry with the Korea Tourism Organization leading the efforts, promoting its medical tourism abroad and taking different approaches to each foreign nation. If the government enhances related policies and works with the industry, the nation will be able to lead the world's medical tourism industry.