Busan City Wins Grand Prize for Global Medical Tourism Marketing at 'Medical Asia 2024'

On the 5th at Korea Press Center, '14th Korea Global Medical Service Awards' Grand Prize in the Metropolitan Local Government Category

Busan City received the Grand Prize in the "Global Medical Tourism Marketing Metropolitan Government Category" at the 'MEDICAL ASIA 2024, the 14th Korea Global Medical Service Awards' ceremony held on the 5th at the Korea Press Center International Conference Hall.

MEDICAL ASIA 2024 Grand Prize in the Global Marketing Metropolitan Municipality Category. Provided by Busan City

The 'MEDICAL ASIA 2024, the 14th Korea Global Medical Service Awards,' established to promote the globalization of Korean medical services and activate medical tourism, is jointly hosted by Money Today, the Central Daily News in the Americas, and China Phoenix Net Jilin, three media outlets from Korea, the U.S., and China, and is supported by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, and the Korea Tourism Organization.

Especially this year, marking its 14th anniversary, the final awardees in each category were selected by the 'MEDICAL ASIA Operating Committee' through a comprehensive evaluation combining preliminary surveys and surveys of 100 experts based on 14 years of accumulated big data.

This award is the result of the city's efforts to strengthen its global marketing strategy this year by actively promoting differentiated attraction and publicity through 'targeted customized specialized marketing,' 'familiarization tours (fam tours),' and 'overseas business-to-business (B2B) transactions.'

The city, as an attracting institution leading Busan medical tourism, selected for the first time this year ▲Top 30 institutions with the highest foreign patient attraction performance in 2023 ▲20 cooperative institutions for joint promotion of health checkups, beauty, and Korean medicine, establishing a 'virtuous cycle model for activating foreign patient attraction' through focused promotion based on content.

Additionally, the city is strengthening the promotion of Busan wellness and medical tourism through online and offline overseas media.

These efforts include ▲publishing a regular Busan medical tourism magazine ▲operating social networking service (SNS) channels by language group (8 channels, 6 languages) ▲using overseas influencers to promote Busan wellness and medical tourism videos via YouTube platform advertisements ▲video advertisements using monitors in airport railroad stations and trains ▲banner advertisements on foreign language channels of media outlets ▲banner advertisements on Chinese mobile apps.

Park Geun-rok, Director of the Tourism MICE Bureau of Busan City, said, “Busan is a differentiated 'global wellness and medical tourism city' with region-specific medical specialization areas and natural tourism resources.” He added, “This award recognizes our efforts to actively implement global marketing and promotional policies based on a well-established foundation. Furthermore, we will do our best to create a 'global wellness and medical tourism hub city' where treatment and rest are possible through systematic development of Busan wellness tourism sites and linkage with global branding content.”