the Travel Enthusiast
- 03 Jan
erato in Medical Travel | NO COMMENTSMedical travel booming in South Korea in 2014
The huge and well-known Chinese cosmetics and beauty consulting franchise company called Mimi Consulting Corporation and nearly 450 CEOs from its over 200 chain stores will visit Daegu Medical City in South Korea during January 2014 to hold their annual consulting conference. This conference has – so far – been always held in China, so the event will mean a lot to Korea’s medical travel industry.
Many hope that the conference will furthermore fuel the economy and popularity of Daegu, as Mimi Consulting intends to direct Chinese patients who are particularly interested in cosmetic surgery to Daegu, which is especially famous for providing such medical services.
More on the medical travel conference
The two-day event – which is a big game changer in the medical travel industry – is called the 2013 Korea International Medical Tourism Convention (KIMTC 2013), was co-hosted by Dongfang Hotel and the Korea Tourism Organization. According to those who participated at the event, it was an unprecedented success, with a turnout higher than anticipated, drawing unprecedented attention to the cosmetics and medical industry of South Korea.
CJ Worldis Director Kim Eung-suk, who coordinated and organized the event with Mimi Consulting, said, “Mimi Consulting had originally planned to visit South Korea, but changed their itinerary when it came to know that the KIMTC 2013 would open at Dongfang Hotel in Guangzhou. In the case they send 5 patients at at least from each clinic, that sums up to 1,000 patients a month, if we consider the number of clinics under Mimi’s umbrella. So we expect an annual revenue probably reaching tens of billions of won.” This means millions of dollars for the South Korean medical industry.
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travel search by Travelgrove (get this widget)The future of South Korea’s medical tourism
There were also inquiries on a possible agreement regarding joint health clinics between Korea and China. CU Medicare’s CEO Lee Sung-yong said, “Problems often arise from cosmetic surgery that need intensive aftercare. A Chinese clinic proposed to invest 1 billion won $950 thousand in a Korean clinic which specializes in aftercare. The negotiation is in progress.”
According to recent reports, if things go well for South Korea’s medical tourism, they can expect 1 million people visiting Korea for medical services by 2020 – that is a huge business worth to invest into. Most of this will probably go into the the beauty industry, as the country is already world famous for its various plastic surgeries – some even considered rather extreme.
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