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Busan Metropolitan City Selects 14 Leading Cooperative Medical Institutions to Attract Foreign Patients, Advancing Toward a Global Wellness and Medical Tourism Hub

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Busan Metropolitan City, led by Mayor Park Heong-joon, announced that it has selected 14 “2026 Leading Cooperative Medical Institutions for Attracting Foreign Patients” to promote diversification of global markets and activation of foreign patient attraction through the establishment of a collaborative medical tourism system, as medical and wellness tourism is gaining attention as a next-generation high value-added industry driving qualitative growth in Korea’s tourism sector.

This initiative is a strategic policy aimed at proactively responding to intensifying competition in the global medical tourism market and changing demand by country, while positioning Busan as a “global wellness and medical tourism hub city.”

In January, the city conducted an open call and, through document screening and on-site evaluations, comprehensively assessed factors such as infrastructure for international patient services, operation of dedicated foreign language personnel, specialized treatment areas, and potential linkage with wellness tourism to select 14 medical institutions.

The selected institutions include four general hospitals (Daedong Hospital, Samyuk Busan Hospital, Good Gang-An Hospital of Eunseong Medical Foundation, and Inje University Haeundae Paik Hospital), two hospitals (Lineup Dental Hospital and Balgeun Noon Eye Hospital), six clinics (Gounsesang Kim Yangje Jang Bongseok Dermatology Clinic, Grace Dermatology Clinic, Kim Byung-jun Ladas Thoracic Surgery Clinic, The Body Plastic Surgery Clinic, Balgeun Sesang Eye Clinic, and She’s Plastic Surgery Clinic), and two Korean medicine institutions (Busan Jaseng Hospital of Korean Medicine and Jayeonan Korean Medicine Clinic), for a total of 14 institutions.

These institutions will serve as representative medical tourism partners of Busan and jointly engage in attraction marketing with the city.

To promote the attraction of overseas patients, the city will systematically support the development of customized wellness and medical tourism products and global promotion and marketing projects.

Selected institutions will receive support for promoting outstanding medical services and tourism content that drive Busan’s medical tourism, including development of country-specific customized wellness and medical tourism products, priority participation in overseas briefings and familiarization tours, promotional activities using global online travel agency (OTA) platforms, and production of multilingual promotional content.

In addition, the city will transition from an individual institution-centered attraction capability approach to an integrated marketing system based on public-private cooperation, while strengthening country-specific strategies to actively expand the high value-added, stay-oriented medical tourism market.

To promote “stay-oriented medical tourism” beyond simple treatment, the city will advance high-quality wellness and medical tourism products linked with Busan’s abundant tourism resources.

It also plans to enhance global competitiveness by improving the quality of customized medical services for foreign patients.

In particular, the city will pursue diversification of attraction efforts focused on key strategic markets such as Southeast Asia, Japan, China, Central Asia, and Mongolia, while strengthening digital-based promotion to enhance global awareness of Busan’s medical infrastructure.

Na Yun-bin, Director General of the Tourism MICE Bureau, stated, “The selection of these leading cooperative medical institutions marks an important turning point for Busan’s medical tourism to transform into a cooperation-based strategic industry. We will make efforts to ensure that these institutions continue to grow as representative attraction organizations of Busan.” He added, “We will also strengthen linkages among related industries, including wellness tourism centered on medical tourism, to help Busan advance as a ‘global wellness and medical tourism hub city.’”