Korea Offers Medical Tourism App

As a growing number of travellers are drawn to Korea for cosmetic surgery and medical treatment, Mediapp Korea is a new free mobile app targeting those health-conscious tourists. This app provides information on Korea’s medical industry in four different languages – English, Russian, Chinese and Japanese.

As a growing number of travellers are drawn to Korea for cosmetic surgery and medical treatment, Mediapp Korea is a new free mobile app targeting those health-conscious tourists.

This app provides information on Korea’s medical industry in four different languages – English, Russian, Chinese and Japanese. The app, developed by the state-run Korea Tourism Organization as part of its effort to promote the country’s medical tourism industry, offers information on medical services, institutions and the latest news on the industry. The free app is also a medical planner which alerts iPhone users at scheduled times to check their sugar level, blood pressure or to take prescribed medicine. KTO has another app, Visit Korea, to help tourists by listing lodgings and transport. Extra features include currency exchange rates, weather, time, maps and emergency contacts.

The national government in Seoul has identified medical tourism as one of 17 growth industries for Korea, with Jeju as a target region. Within the Jeju Development Corporation is a medical business department to promote the JDC Healthcare Town project on the island. The scheduled opening of Phase I has been delayed by a year to 2012.The land is bought and development has begun.

There are concerns in the country that Jeju will just increase competition with other regions of Korea bidding for the same foreign customers, while the lack of direct flights to Jeju means it is not accessible enough to attract an adequate volume of foreign medical patients. The healthcare town aims to include rehabilitation and alternative medical centres, general hospitals, special hospitals, long-term care facilities and a medical research complex.

Stage one is the wellness park – a medical/recreational complex specializing in health care and relaxation (health care centres, rehabilitation/alternative medical centres, water park, patient/visitor accommodation).

Stage 2 is a medical complex capable of providing high-tech medical services (general hospitals, special-care hospitals, long-term care facilities). Seoul National University Hospital is the primary medical partner of JDC and a would-be provider of services for the healthcare town. Stage 3 is a medical research complex.

The developers are working with international consultants KPMG, to formulate the business model for this project. The target population is tourists from northeast Asia. JDC is making presentations about private investment in the healthcare town to Korean domestic enterprises and foreign investors from China, Japan, Malaysia and the US.

Korean law prohibits domestic hospitals and other medical facilities from operating as businesses for profit. Jeju Provincial Government, while enjoying a fair measure of political and legal autonomy, has had to petition the central government for an exception in this case. JDC hopes that such legislation will be passed this year. Foreign profit-making hospitals and medical facilities already have the right to operate in Jeju. But potential investors don’t want to operate alone; they want local partnerships, so JDC needs to obtain the same right for Korean organizations.

The target population for the services of Healthcare Town is medical tourists from northeast Asia. A secondary target is people anywhere of Korean descent. Koreans who may wish to combine an island vacation with spa-like therapies or medical treatment and recuperation, are the third targets. The Chinese will be a key market, as they do not need a visa to visit the island.