[Yanolja Research Insights] Vol.47 K-Medical Tourism: Anchoring High-Value Travel

K-Medical Tourism: Turning Medical Care into High-Value Travel

South Korea’s inbound tourism market is growing rapidly.

Foreign arrivals reached a record 18.94 million in 2025, while arrivals from January to July 2026 increased another 21.3% year over year.

But more visitors do not automatically mean more tourism revenue.

Average spending per foreign tourist fell from $1,185 in 2019 to $1,156 in 2025. The next challenge is therefore not only attracting more visitors, but also increasing the value created by each visit.

One area with strong potential is medical and wellness tourism.

Medical tourists spend far beyond the hospital

Korea welcomed 2.01 million foreign patients in 2025, more than four times the pre-pandemic peak of 497,000 in 2019.

Their spending is also significantly higher than that of general tourists.

In 2024, average card spending per foreign patient reached KRW 3.99 million, about 2.5 times the KRW 1.60 million spent by general foreign tourists.

What is especially notable is where that money is spent.

• 38.3% was spent in the medical sector
• 61.7% was spent outside hospitals
• Spending extended to accommodation, shopping, food and beverages, transportation, and other tourism-related activities

This means medical care can function as an anchor for the entire travel journey, creating demand not only for treatment but also for where visitors stay, eat, shop, travel, and recover.

Korea’s medical tourism market has a distinctive structure

Dermatology and plastic surgery together accounted for 68% of foreign patients in 2024, with dermatology alone making up 56.6%.

Many of these services are outpatient-based. Depending on the procedure and recovery conditions, visitors may be able to continue their travel itinerary after treatment.

This creates strong potential to connect medical services with tourism, shopping, wellness, and recovery experiences.

K-culture also plays an important role in attracting new demand.

Among visitors who traveled to Korea for medical purposes, Korean Wave content was one of the leading reasons they became interested in visiting Korea.

Repeat visits are another important feature.

Among medical tourists surveyed, 38.6% had visited Korea four or more times.

This suggests that the value of medical tourism should not be measured only by spending on a single trip. Repeat visits and long-term customer value also matter.

Three links are needed to turn demand into tourism value

For medical care to create broader value across the tourism ecosystem, three stages need to work together.

1. Awareness

2. Connection

3. Base expansion

2026 is bringing change

Several parts of the institutional landscape have already begun to change.

In 2026:

• Visa improvements for foreign patients were announced
• The Healing Tourism Industry Act took effect
• A legal basis for telemedicine for foreign patients was established
• An amendment concerning travel businesses and foreign-patient attraction was introduced
• Another amendment proposed restoring the VAT refund provision through December 31, 2029

These developments affect different stages of the same customer journey, from pre-trip consultation and booking to treatment, recovery, repeat visits, and follow-up care.

The challenge is that these systems were developed separately across different ministries.

Their impact will ultimately depend on whether they can operate as one connected journey rather than a collection of separate policies.

What should come next?

The central priority is not simply deregulation.

It is clarifying standards and aligning institutions around the traveler’s journey.

Key areas include:

• establishing clearer standards for online medical advertising targeting overseas consumers
• reviewing rules governing which businesses can connect medical care with travel
• evaluating visit incentives based on their broader impact on accommodation, shopping, dining, and other spending
• linking fragmented qualification and registration systems
• expanding performance indicators beyond patient numbers and medical fees

In particular, indicators such as length of stay, total per-capita spending, repeat-visit rate, and regional dispersion need to be considered together.

From treatment to a complete travel journey

Korea already has several strengths.

Its medical and cosmetic services are internationally competitive, price conditions remain attractive, and K-culture continues to raise awareness of Korea across overseas markets.

The opportunity now is to connect these strengths.

When medical care leads naturally into accommodation, shopping, dining, wellness, recovery, and repeat visits, medical tourism becomes much more than a healthcare market.

It becomes a way to turn growth in visitor numbers into higher-value travel and broader benefits across the tourism economy.

How can Korea turn medical care into a stronger anchor for the entire travel journey?

Discover the full analysis and more insights on the Yanolja Research website.

[Yanolja Research Insights Vol.47] K-Medical Tourism: Anchoring High-Value Travel