"I Want to Go to South Korea for Treatment"—K-Medical Care Claims the Top Spot Among Foreign Patients, Surpassing the U.S. and Japan

[Financial News] South Korea has emerged as the most preferred destination among foreign consumers seeking medical treatment abroad. It claimed the top spot, overtaking the United States and Japan, which have long led the medical tourism and global healthcare sectors.
According to the 2025 Survey of Overseas Perceptions of Korean Medical Services released on the 17th by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), 37.3% of the approximately 5,800 foreign respondents who expressed an intention to use medical services abroad chose South Korea as their preferred destination. The United States, a long-established medical powerhouse, followed at 33.4%, while Japan came in at 30.7%.
The main reasons respondents preferred South Korea were its "higher level of medical services than their home countries" at 41.2% and its "high level of trust in the country and its hospitals" at 35.4%.
The share of respondents who intended to visit South Korea for medical treatment also rose to 61.2%, up 1.4 percentage points from the previous year. In particular, Americans' intention to visit South Korea surged by 19.0 percentage points. Saudi Arabia and Thailand also recorded sharp increases of 12.5 and 12.0 percentage points, respectively.
The number of foreign patients treated in South Korea in 2024 jumped 93.2% from the previous year to 1.17 million. It surpassed 1 million annually for the first time since the country began its program to attract foreign patients in 2009.
South Korea also showed clear gains in a competitiveness survey covering various biohealth sectors. Cosmetics retained the top ranking from the previous year, while medical services and pharmaceuticals climbed two places each to third and fourth, respectively. Medical devices rose one spot to fifth.
Meanwhile, online channels such as YouTube at 56.9% and Google at 46.7% overwhelmingly dominated as the main sources of information about South Korean medical services, accounting for 86.3% overall. In the Chinese market, Douyin and Xiaohongshu (RedNote) accounted for significant shares at 50.4% and 37.8%, respectively.
[email protected] Seong Min-seo Reporter