Tourism Organization Conducts 'K-Medical' Tour for UAE Medical Tourism Officials

Arab Emirates (UAE) medical tourism officials are conducting a familiarization tour of Korean medical institutions. (Photo by Korea Tourism Organization)

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Korea Tourism Organization announced on the 31st that it invited five medical tourism officials from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and conducted a familiarization tour from the 23rd to the 28th.

The familiarization tour group visited Korea's high-quality medical institutions, including Ewha Mokdong Hospital and Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, designated as government-dispatched hospitals in the UAE, as well as Jaseng Hospital of Korean Medicine and Wooridul Hospital. They inspected the readiness to accommodate patients from the Middle East region and discussed cooperation plans to promote the attraction of government-dispatched patients. In addition, for families accompanying medical tourists, they toured wellness tourism facilities that have gained more attention during the COVID-19 situation, such as the Seoul Korean Medicine Promotion Center and Vista Walkerhill Wellness Club.

Ashraf Fawzi of Omeir Travel agency said, "It was a valuable opportunity to explore not only Korea's excellent tourism resources but also world-class medical staff and cutting-edge medical infrastructure," adding, "As inquiries from medical tourists wishing to visit Korea for treatment continue despite the COVID-19 situation, we will actively cooperate to revitalize medical tourism exchanges between the two countries once tourism resumes."

Kim Haneul, Director of the International Medical Center at Jaseng Hospital of Korean Medicine, stated, "Medical tourism is a high value-added industry with great growth potential," and added, "Through this familiarization tour, we were able to introduce Korea's excellent medical tourism infrastructure and expand new overseas customer networks."

Kim Gwanmi, head of the Medical Wellness Team at the Korea Tourism Organization, said, "This familiarization tour was planned to quickly respond to changing medical tourism trends and to secure the medical tourism market after COVID-19," adding, "It also has important significance in terms of checking and preparing for safe tourism situations, such as compliance with quarantine guidelines when foreign outpatients visit Korea in the future."

Meanwhile, Korea maintains high recognition as a medical tourism destination. The average expenditure per medical tourist visiting Korea (7.91 million KRW) is 5.49 times higher than that of general tourists (1.44 million KRW). In particular, the Middle East region, including the UAE, was an active area for medical tourism to Korea, with 8,963 visitors for treatment in 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.