International guests who traveled to South Korea for medical therapy spent 1.6 instances greater than their medical bills on non-medical actions corresponding to tourism, a brand new evaluation exhibits. This marks the primary time that the spending patterns of overseas sufferers have been analyzed utilizing bank card information, confirming the home financial ripple results of medical tourism.
In line with a report titled “Evaluation of International Affected person Consumption Patterns Primarily based on 2024 Credit score Card Knowledge,” launched on Dec. 16 by the Korea Well being Business Improvement Institute (KHIDI), overseas sufferers spent a complete of three.66 trillion received (roughly $2.48 billion) in South Korea final 12 months. Of this quantity, 1.40 trillion received was spent on medical companies, whereas 2.26 trillion received went to non-medical sectors.
The common card spending per overseas affected person, together with each medical and non-medical bills, stood at roughly 4 million received per individual. Han Dong-woo, director normal of the Worldwide Medical Division at KHIDI, mentioned, “Final 12 months, the typical card spending per normal overseas vacationer was 1.07 million received, that means overseas sufferers spent practically 4 instances extra,” including, “This confirms that medical vacationers generate considerably increased value-added consumption in contrast with bizarre vacationers.”
By medical specialty, dermatology ranked first with 585.5 billion received in card funds, adopted by cosmetic surgery at 359.4 billion received. Mixed, the 2 sectors accounted for 944.9 billion received, or 26% of complete spending. In non-medical classes, spending was highest at shops at 278.8 billion received, adopted by eating places at 188.4 billion received, duty-free retailers at 183.3 billion received, and motels at 148.9 billion received.
When common spending per individual was damaged down by nationality, Kazakhstan ranked first with 10.13 million received, adopted by Mongolia at 9.97 million received and the United Arab Emirates at 9.56 million received. Trying solely at medical spending, sufferers from Kazakhstan ranked first with 6.08 million received, adopted by Indonesia at 4.27 million received, and Mongolia at 3.67 million received, making them the most important spenders.
