Seoul, March 26 (Yonhap) :
The number of foreign tourists visiting South Korea for medical purposes lagged far behind global peers in 2011 due to the government’s regulations on local hospitals, data showed Tuesday.
According to the data by the Korea National Tourism Organization, the number of foreign health tourists to South Korea is estimated at 150,000 in 2012, up 25 percent from 120,000 tallied a year earlier.
The number was far outstripped by the 1.56 million visitors posted by Thailand in 2011, separate data by the Hyundai Research Institute (HRI) showed. India and Singapore attracted 730,000 and 720,000 visitors over the cited period.
The HRI said the country’s weak performance in the medical tourism sector is mainly attributable to its excessive regulations on local hospitals.
South Korean hospitals are not allowed to have foreign patients exceed 5 percent of their capacity, and medical specialists with foreign licenses have limited leeway in working for local institutions.
The HRI said the government should make efforts to ease regulations on hospitals by allowing non-medical firms to invest in medical institutions and abolish ceilings on the portion of foreign inpatients.
Meanwhile, the market size of the global medical tourism industry is estimated at 67 trillion won (US$60 billion), the HRI added. South Korea saw its revenue of the industry reach 180.9 billion won in 2012.
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http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/yonhap-news-agency/130326/medical-tourism-regulations
source: http://www.globalpost.com / Home> Yonhap News Agency / March 26th, 2013
