So. Korea Courts Medical, Wellness Travelers

Guest contributor Josef Woodman recently returned from a medical tourism conference in South Korea. Here is his report on what the destination offers medical tourists.

As affluent and developing nations alike struggle with rising healthcare costs, wellness is playing an increasing role in healthcare delivery. South Korea’s more progressive medical centers and tourism operators are pointing the way to a new world of healthcare, one wellness travelers from all over the world can take advantage of.

Preventive care has long been an integral part of the Korean healthcare experience, with comprehensive health screenings that include not only standard physical check-ups, but full vision, hearing and dental exams – even a neck or spine MRI if desired.

Costs are remarkably low: a full check-up, including vision, dental, hearing and an MRI can be had for around $1,500 at some of Korea’s leading medical centers.  

While in Busan, I encountered three women from Chicago who visit this southern Korean resort every year. They stay at a Westin right on the beach, spend a half-day undergoing their annual check-up (required by their health plan), hit the beach for the weekend, then take a nonstop flight from Seoul back to Chicago.

Hospitals up the ante
In urban and resort areas alike, South Korea’s hospitals are upping the ante on medical tourism, with full-blown wellness centers that look more like spas or health resorts than clinics.

Among them is Seoul’s high-end Hankuk Hospital, which has just completed a Health Enrichment Center that offers executive suites for overnight stays. And St. Mary’s Catholic Hospital, also in downtown Seoul, has undergone a complete renovation, with a full floor now dedicated to health screenings and preventive care.

Jeju Healthcare Town
Of particular interest to travel agents is the popular Korean resort of Jeju Island, located off Korea’s southern coast. Some 8 million leisure tourists visit each year to take advantage of Jeju’s beaches, leisure sports, spring Cherry Blossom Festival and, yes, a winter penguin swimming contest.  

Jeju’s town fathers are planning Jeju Healthcare Town, a cluster of hospitals, specialty clinics, wellness resorts and spas focused on a more holistic approach to healthcare and aimed at the “intentional” wellness traveler.

Toward that end, the island’s Cheju Halla General Hospital is building one of the world’s first wellness-based hospital-hotel/resort complexes. Dubbed Medical Resort WE, the facility will accept its first patients this July.  

Situated on 23 acres of manicured pine forests with breathtaking sea views, the complex will offer patients yoga, meditation, hydrotherapy, nutracutical and other wellness programs. An entire wing will focus on wellness- and beauty-oriented specialties such as full executive health screenings, anti-aging and light cosmetic surgery.  

Double occupancy room rates start at about $200 night; flights from Seoul’s domestic Gimpo airport take about an hour, and international nonstops to Jeju from Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, Osaka and Jakarta are becoming more frequent.

Josef Woodman is publisher of Patients Beyond Borders, travel guides to medical and wellness destinations.