Korea`s first hospital hotel

Busan has launched the first "hospital hotel" in Korea. A 17-floor building at the city`s Bujeon subway station has Smart Hospital from the first to ninth floors and Ibis Ambassador Busan City Center Hotel from the 10th floor. The hospital began to take patients from Oct. 1 and the hotel opened Monday. Since both the hospital and the hotel are owned by a single owner, the combined entity can provide comprehensive service to patients and their families.

Hospital owner Kim Yang-hoo, who also represents the hotel, planned the hospital hotel a decade ago. He urged medical professionals to participate in his plan three years ago when medical tourism in Korea began to draw attention, and let Ibis take care of hotel management. The hospital has 12 departments and is almost equivalent to a medical center except for emergency rooms. Staff who speak five languages other than Korean welcome foreign patients. Patients can stay in either a patient room (150 beds) or a hotel room that costs 90,000 won (77.10 U.S. dollars) per night, depending on the hospitalization period and the number of accompanying family members.

Last year, 82,000 foreign tourists visited Korea for medical service, up 36 percent year-on-year. The revenue from foreign patients rose 89 percent to 103.2 billion won (88.4 million dollars). At a glance, Korea seems to fare well in this business as a latecomer. The reality is, however, that the country cannot compare to leading countries in the field like Thailand (estimated 2 million medical tourists), India (1.1 million) and Singapore (720,000). Singapore does not consider medical tourism as part of tourism overall like Thailand but has set a goal to attract foreign patients for medical service.

The Health and Welfare Ministry of Korea estimates that 1.42 million foreign medical tourists will come to Korea and bring in revenue of about 5 trillion won (4.28 billion dollars). The Korea Tourism Organization expects 2.6 million foreign patients who will plunk down 9 trillion won (7.7 billion dollars). Even the average will produce annual growth of 37 percent. Korea has huge potential in the field because its medical skills are as good as those of more advanced countries and can take advantage of the global craze for Korean pop culture. Kyung Hee University professor Kim Yang-gyun suggested attracting severely ill patients from countries with less developed medical service than Korea by hiring medical staff in those countries and selling medical tours via insurers or travel agents for patients from the U.S., and Europe, which have high medical standards. The hospital hotel in Busan will serve as a litmus test for Korean medical tourism.

Editorial Writer Hong Kwon-hee (konihong@donga.com)