Foreign medical tourists to South Korea exceed 2 million in 2025, driven by China and Japan

SEOUL, Aug. 30 (Yonhap) -- The number of foreign medical tourists coming to South Korea topped 2 million last year amid growing global interest in the country's medical services, a report showed Sunday.

A total of 2.01 million foreigners visited South Korea for medical, dental and surgical care in 2025, up 71.9 percent from a year earlier, according to an annual report by the state-run Korea Health Industry Development Institute.

By country, 618,000, or 30.8 percent, were from China, followed by 600,000 from Japan, 185,000 from Taiwan and 173,000 from the United States.

Among dermatology clinics, 459,000 Chinese patients received treatment, followed by 399,000 Japanese patients.

At plastic surgery clinics, 97,000 Japanese patients received treatment, followed by 57,000 Chinese patients.

Meanwhile, separate data by the Korea Tourism Organization showed that foreign medical tourists spent 213.08 billion won (US$154.35 million) in July, up 66.5 percent from a year earlier.

The monthly figure remained above 200 billion won for five straight months from March through July.

By country, Chinese visitors spent 57.7 billion won, followed by Americans with 44 billion won and Japanese with 28.5 billion won.

By type of establishment, 54.9 percent of foreign medical tourists' spending was at dermatology clinics, followed by plastic surgery clinics at 19.3 percent and pharmacies at 12.9 percent.

By region, foreign medical tourists spent 86.8 percent of their total spending in Seoul, followed by Busan at 6.4 percent and Gyeonggi Province at 3.7 percent.

"This is the result of the growing perception that South Korea's medical technology is world-class, combined with the fact that major hospitals and clinics have established multilingual guidance systems and improved the convenience of treatment," Yoon Ji-hwan, a professor at Kyung Hee University, said.