In the first half of this year, foreign visitors' domestic medical spending in Korea rose faster than the pace of tourist growth.
In particular, the number of cards used for medical services barely increased, but medical spending per card jumped by nearly 30%. Analysts say foreign tourism is shifting from shopping and sightseeing to also using medical services.
According to an analysis of Hana Card data by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) on the 30th, domestic card spending in Korea by overseas-issued cards identified as being used in the medical sector totaled 3.0973 trillion won in January–June, up 25.6% from a year earlier.
Their spending in the medical sector was 1.4203 trillion won, up 38.6% in the same period. Non-medical sector spending was 1.677 trillion won, up 16.3%. The medical sector's growth rate was about 2.4 times higher than that of non-medical sectors.
The share of the medical sector in total card spending also rose 4.3 percentage points, from 41.6% in the first half of last year to 45.9% this year. Of the 630.8 billion won increase in total card spending, the medical sector accounted for 395.3 billion won, or 62.7%.
Observers say this is hard to explain by the rise in foreign tourists alone. In the first half of this year, inbound foreign visitors totaled 10.71 million, up 21.3% from last year. The medical sector card spending growth rate was 17.3 percentage points higher than that.
Notably, money spent per person increased faster than the number of people using medical services.
Looking at the top 14 countries for which both card payment data and inbound visitor statistics are available, the number of cards used in the medical sector rose just 1.0% from the first half of last year. In contrast, average medical spending per card increased 30.1%, from 1.338 million won to 1.741 million won.
As a result, medical sector card spending in these countries rose 31.4%, from 778.4 billion won to 1.0231 trillion won.
This trend was especially pronounced in the United States. The number of cards used in the medical sector increased 0.3%, but average spending per card rose 22.4%. In contrast, Thailand saw a 45.2% increase in the number of cards used and a 3.7% rise in average spending per card, indicating a notable inflow of new medical consumers.
Japan and Singapore saw declines of 6.1% and 9.9%, respectively, in the number of cards used in the medical sector, but average spending per card increased 15.4% and 16.4%.
By department, dermatology stood out.
In the first half of this year, foreigners' dermatology card spending was 768.5 billion won, up 49.5% from last year. It accounted for 54.1% of total medical sector spending.
In particular, the increase in dermatology card spending was about 254.3 billion won, accounting for 64.3% of the medical sector's total increase of 395.3 billion won.
Plastic surgery spending was 256.1 billion won, up 16.6%. Combined spending on aesthetic medicine—dermatology and plastic surgery—was 1.0246 trillion won, accounting for 72.1% of the entire medical sector.
Aesthetic medicine was not the only area to grow. Internal medicine spending was 100.1 billion won, up 66.5%, orthopedics rose 60.9%, and dentistry increased 41.0%.
In non-medical consumption, increased pharmacy use stood out.
Non-medical sector card spending was 1.677 trillion won, up 16.3%. Pharmacy spending jumped 87.9%, the highest growth rate, and payment gateway (PG) spending increased 53.4%.
Department stores rose 22.9%, general apparel 21.6%, cosmetics 20.4%, and chain stores 19.4%. In contrast, duty-free spending fell 1.4% and airline spending decreased 7.5%.
Han Dong-woo, head of the International Medical Department at the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), said, "We will continue to link data on foreign patient attraction results, tourism statistics, and card spending to analyze market changes and use them as basic data to assess the impact on local governments' medical tourism-linked industries."