Mexican Maria Zu first visited Seoul eight years ago to tour the cafes and parks of the South Korean capital, but spent a key partof 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.
Foreign visitors spend more on medical services
Just over 2 million foreigners visited South Korea last year for medical treatment, nearly double the 2024 figure of 1.17 million, the health ministry said in April.
"We now see foreign tourists spend more on medical services than on tourism in Korea," said Hong, adding that health authorities hoped to keep up the momentum by promoting services such as anti-ageing treatments to middle-aged visitors.
Zu, a former flight attendant who has visited South Korea at least six times, said she tended to pack several non-invasive treatments into a single trip.
That is a growing trend exemplified by hashtags such as "#koreaglowup", popular among users of social media such as Instagram.
The major attractions are cost and South Korean expertise in beauty techniques that enables it to offer technologies and techniques often years ahead of those in the West.
Several visitors told Reuters that skincare treatments in South Korea could be as much as a fifth cheaper than those at home, while communication was not a problem, as many clinics employed multilingual coordinators.
"I like that there is a variety of K-beauty treatments in general that are not even offered in the U.S.," said Cindy Gu, a 30-year-old social media video editor from the United States.
She was waiting to undergo a facial lifting treatment at Lienjang, a beauty clinic in Seoul's upscale Gangnam district.
Competition is key to affordability
Competition is the key to affordability, said Se-rin Lee, director of Lienjang's aesthetic dermatology department, as there are so many beauty clinics in South Korea.
"The competition is pushing the prices of services down," she said, adding that Lienjang's foreign patients averaged about 100 a day, each with an average spend of about 1.5 million won ($1,000).
About 15,000 clinics offer skincare treatments, mostly run by general practitioners rather than dermatologists, the Association of Korean Dermatologists says.
"Korea is doing a really great job in many areas, not only in skincare," said Zu, adding that she was working on a project to deliver experiences for travellers to Korea and connect the country with the world. "Now my dream is to live here."