What can you explore through international travel? Sunshine, beaches, spas and… plastic surgery?!
The number of people travelling for plastic surgery has more than doubled in the last decade. According to the data from Yangdu, medical tourism increased from 20 million people in 2006 to 40 million in 2012 and it’s still increasing sharply.
It’s an industry that’s now worth $100 billion, and is making a significant contribution to the world economy.
The change of aesthetic standard in Asia
Plastic surgery has become popular in Asia since the aesthetic standard has changed through the influence of American and European culture. Double-fold eyelids, big eyes, a high-bridged nose and a V-shaped face have become to the gold-standard of beauty. However, a large number of Asian people carry the gene for single-fold eyelids and a low-bridged nose which has resulted in the trend of having plastic surgery becoming a fashion.
Normally, plastic surgery is considered as a serious but rather appealing thing to most Asian women. The wish to become more beautiful and the surgery risk bother them. However, medical tourism has a slogan of ‘enjoyable travel with a new beautiful you’ that looks like a way to tackle the dilemma.
South Korea: plastic surgery heaven
The famous street of plastic surgery hospitals in South Korea
According to the report on 2nd November 2013 from China News, the main countries involved are South Korea, Japan and Brazil. While among these countries, South Korea is the most popular country for medical tourism.
According to the South Korean embassy in China, by July 2011 medical tourism visa applications for Chinese people increased 386% when compared to 2010. According to SBS TV in South Korea, the 51 plastic surgery hospitals in Jiangnan District of South Korea received more than 11 times the number of Chinese patients than the previous year. During the Chinese New Year in 2014, South Korea received more than 80 thousand Chinese tourists and most of them booked plastic surgery.
The main reason why South Korea is so popular to patients is the influence of South Korean pop culture. A statistic released by the South Korean government shows that there are more than 4000 plastic surgeries in South Korea and 13 percent of the population have had plastic surgery.
Doing plastic surgery is very common among South Koreans. “Almost all the singers, actors and actresses have plastic surgery before they do their first show in front of the public,” said Donglin Jia, who is a trainee in SM Entertainment in South Korea. “Entertainment companies will arrange surgeries for them and this is just as normal as having a dance class.” Indeed, in the Miss Korea beauty contests in 2013, almost all the contestants had a very similar face. As for normal people in South Korea, plastic surgery is even treated as a gift for graduation or a birthday to family or friends.
The popularity of having plastic surgery in South Korea gives an impression of safety to those people who want to try and has become a label of pop culture of South Korea.
Japan: a symbol of advanced technique in Asia
a plastic surgery hospital in Japan
Compared to its widespread popularity in South Korea, medical tourism operates on a smaller scale. However, as the second biggest country for medical tourism, Japan focuses on personal service and advanced technique.
There is a common view among plastic surgery lovers that though the technique in South Korea is good, people who have plastic surgery there look similar. “ I like the eyes of a South Korean star so I decided to have eye surgery in South Korea,” said Lin Hua, a girl who had plastic surgery last year. “Before I went there, everyone told me that they can imagine what I will look like – a standard South Korean stars face.”
This is considered a shortcoming of having plastic surgery in South Korea, and those people who want a more distinguished look prefer to choose Japan. Japan is famous for the more natural look and for better customer care.
Is medical tourism really a dreamcatcher?
However, medical tourism is not exactly as the slogan claims and plastic surgery in South Korea is also not as safe as it appear to be. Though there are thousands of plastic surgery hospitals in South Korea, Japan and some other countries, and their plastic surgery industry is well-developed, there are still some unlicensed hospitals.
“It is difficult to distinguish those unqualified hospitals when you select which one should you choose,” said Zhuoyu Li, a 21 year-old Chinese girl who undertook medical tourism to South Korea. “All the ways we can get information from are the internet and the travel agency—often only the agency because we even can’t read the Korean words on the website.”
In these circumstances, the medical tourism agent plays a vital role in the process. If the hospitals that they recommend to patients are qualified and advanced, patients could have a good journey; if not, the journey could become a nightmare.
Additionally, the price for medical tourism is not cheap. For example, double-eyelid surgery only costs 1000-5000CNY(exchange rate of CNY& EUR: 1:6.89) in China, however, when you do this in South Korea it may cost 30,000-50,000CNY. “Most Chinese patients don’t care so much about the money, they care more about the result,” says Yangzi Lin, a medical tourism agent in Beijing.
