The capital of Seoul last year drew nearly a million medical tourists from abroad, a record high. Show is a building in the capital where medical clinics are clustered. (Yonhap News)

By Jeon Misun

The nation's capital of Seoul last year attracted nearly a million medical tourists from abroad -- an all-time record -- who spent a combined KRW 1.2 trillion.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government on Sept. 4 said this in releasing data analyzing a Ministry of Health and Welfare 2024 report on attracting such patients.

An estimated 999,642 of the 1.17 million foreign patients who visited Korea last year received treatment in Seoul, more than double that in 2023 and over three times the figure in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Payments by medical tourists using foreign credit cards in Seoul reached KRW 1.2 trillion. By specialty, dermatology drew the most with about 665,000 patients, followed by plastic surgery (131,000) and internal medicine (81,000).

Traditional Korean medicine also saw rapid growth, with the number of foreign visitors to such clinics hitting 23,000, a 12-fold jump from 2020.

By nationality, Japan led with 42% of the patients, followed by China (19%), the U.S. and Taiwan. Medical tourists also mostly flocked to clinics in the capital's Gangnam-gu and Seocho-gu Districts.

The city government said the key reasons for the surge in medical tourists were the expansion of medical institutions for such patients, multilingual coordinators and swift administrative support.

msjeon22@korea.kr