Global Healthcare Guide: Korea Value & Wave

Today, medical tourists from various countries of the world cross the borders of their countries for medical services. In the past, patients moved from developing countries to modernized medical centers of advanced countries for medical treatment. However, the current medical tourism industry shows a trend where patients move from advanced countries to developing countries. The flow of medical tourists is from the US, Canada, Western Europe to India, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. Asian medical tourism has generated 4.4billion dollars for a year until 2012. Although the number is not that big, international medical tourists are visiting Latin America and the Middle East such as Mexico, Cuba, Costa Rica, Chile, Argentina, and Jordan. Eastern European countries such as Lithuania and Poland have become a popular destination for medical tourists. In short, the flow of medical tourists is changing from advanced countries to developing countries, which are Asian, the Middle East and East European countries. In addition, Asian countries including Korea are paying attention to medical tourism as a new added value industry of the 21st century. The reason is that medical tourists stay longer and spend more than general tourists. As a later comer in the medical tourism industry that is considered a blue ocean, Korea is competing against countries like Thailand, Singapore, and India to attract medical tourists. However, due to lack of understanding about medical tourism, Korea fails to develop and promote medical tourism products. Under the circumstances, this book tries to contribute to the development of Korea’s medical tourism industry and strengthening the outbound medical tourism marketing activities. The continued research and lectures will complement the book. At this time when I write this book, many people are restless in developing Korea’s medical industry and hospital industry. I thank all of them as well as many of those who come before and after me working hard for establishing and industrializing Korea’s medical service management and medical tourism marketing. I would like to dedicate this book to Sun Medical Foundation Chairperson Kim Yang Mi who provided full support in publishing this book.