Seoul names 19 patient-friendly hotels amid rise in medical tourism

SEOUL – Seoul has selected 19 accommodation facilities catering to foreign patients and their families, the city government announced on Nov 2, as a sharp rise in medical tourism drives demand for comfortable stays before and after treatment.Services available at the 19 facilities, selected from 40 applicants following document reviews, include dedicated floors and lounges for medical tourists, free laundry services, transportation assistance and multilingual emergency guidance.About 1.76 million foreign patients visited medical institutions in Seoul in 2025, up 3.7-fold from approximately 470,000 in 2023, according to the Korea Health Industry Development Institute.Seoul accounted for 87.2% of the visits by foreign patients nationwide in 2025.The criteria for the accommodations included proximity to medical institutions, availability for extended stays, cooking and laundry facilities, and round-the-clock emergency response arrangements, according to the city government.The list includes Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas, Andaz Seoul Gangnam, The Westin Seoul Parnas and Park Hyatt Seoul. Eleven of the 19 facilities are in Gangnam-gu, with the rest spread across six other districts.They range from two- to five-star hotels and include UH Suite Insadong, an accommodation facility without a star rating.The designation for all 19 facilities will be valid until 2027. The city government will provide information about their locations, services and use in several languages on its medical tourism website and other channels.“The competitiveness of medical tourism depends not only on excellent medical services, but also on how comfortably and safely foreign patients and their families can stay before and after treatment,” Cho Sung-ho, director of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Tourism and Sports Bureau, said.The number of foreign patients treated at medical institutions nationwide rose 71.9% on-year to a record 2.01 million in 2025, surpassing two million for the first time. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK