Mexican Maria Zu first visited Seoul eight years ago to tour the cafes and parks of the South Korean capital, but spent a key part of her latest trip in April in skincare clinics, under the gaze of doctors wielding laser wands and injection needles.
“We feel safe coming to this country for our faces,” said the Dubai-based consultant, one of millions of beauty enthusiasts now boosting South Korea’s tourism numbers and economy as they throng its thousands of skincare clinics.
But these days tourists like Zu seek treatments such as red light therapy or Botox to smooth out wrinkles, as well as ultrasound “skin lifting” to tighten jawlines, not just the nose jobs and double eyelid surgery of earlier years.
“The growth of foreign patients is outpacing that of foreign tourists,” said Hong Seung-wook, director of global healthcare business at the Korea Health Industry Development Institute. His department is tasked by the country’s health ministry to attract foreign patients.
Just over two million foreigners visited South Korea last year for medical treatment, nearly double the 2024 figure of 1.17m, the health ministry said in April.
