A Korea Times article today discusses the enormity of the plastic surgery industry in South Korea. “1.17 million foreign medical tourists” visited Korea in 2024 and a growth rate of over 5% annually. Last year, it’s estimated that Korean medical tourism brought in $1.9 billion USD.

Plastic surgery ranked number two for medical tourism behind dermatology. Facelifts and skin tightening are among the more popular services.

For more vocabulary and content for plastic surgery, see our two-part series here.

Plastic surgery – 성형수술 (seong-hyeong susul)