This is the Health Tourism News roundup for 30 July to 5 August 2026.

South Korea medical spending composition

Dermatology accounted for 67.5% of foreign visitors’ medical card spending in South Korea in the first half of 2026 and plastic surgery for 21.3%, on BC Card figures released on 3 August. In the first half of 2024 the split ran the other way, plastic surgery at 46.2% against dermatology at 32.6%.

The card company analysed transactions on 3.3 million foreign-issued cards. Medical services grew 98% on the first half of 2025, faster than any other category it reports, against 53.6% for foreign card spending overall. Seoul took 92.8% of foreign medical spending, and within the capital the Gangnam district’s share fell 10.4 percentage points to 39.8% while Seocho’s rose 6.7 points to 27.6%.

The Korea National Tourism Organization put foreign spending on medical services at KRW 251.15 billion (about USD 176 million) in May 2026 alone, up 74.6% year on year. Against that, the Korean Dermatological Association counted about 3,000 dermatologists in 2025 and roughly 30,000 institutions offering cosmetic treatment, figures Nikkei Asia reported in coverage picked up by TravelMole on 1 August.

Australian dental demand and South East Asian supply

About 15,000 Australians travel abroad for healthcare each year, on Victorian government estimates, and dental work is the procedure travellers say they are most likely to consider, on a 2025 survey by the Insurance Council of Australia and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Australians spent AUD 12.5 billion (about USD 8.8 billion) on dental services in 2022-23, of which patients paid 61% directly and private health insurers covered 20%, on Australian Institute of Health and Welfare figures. In 2023-24, 28% of Australians aged 15 and over who needed dental care delayed or skipped it, and 18% gave cost as the reason. A single implant runs about AUD 1,200 to 2,000 (USD 840 to 1,410) in Vietnam and AUD 1,500 to 2,500 (USD 1,060 to 1,760) in Thailand, on indicative figures from a health economist at the University of Technology Sydney who has made no direct international fee comparison and cautions that most published prices come from medical travel businesses. Money put full-arch implant treatment at AUD 25,000 to 35,000 (USD 17,600 to 24,600) or more per arch in Australia against about AUD 6,000 to 12,000 (USD 4,200 to 8,400) in Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh City’s tourism department puts Vietnam’s dental visitor volume at about 100,000 a year on revenue of VND 3,500 billion, about USD 134 million, with roughly 80% of that traffic overseas Vietnamese returning home. Thanh Nien puts Thailand’s dental volume at 1.2 million visitors a year on USD 900 million to 1.1 billion, and Malaysia’s at 300,000 to 400,000 on USD 250 million to 300 million.

India medical visa volumes

India admitted 1,811,950 foreign nationals on medical tourism visas between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2025, the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Anupriya Patel, told the Lok Sabha in a written reply on 31 July. Ministry of Home Affairs data put 1,751,088 of those on medical visas, 56,908 on medical attendant visas, 3,375 on AYUSH visas and 579 on AYUSH attendant visas.

The same reply recorded that e-medical visa validity has gone from 60 days to one year, that permitted entries have gone from three to multiple, and that the facility now reaches nationals of 176 countries.

Uttar Pradesh has identified about 200 acres at Jewar for a medical hub costing an estimated Rs 5,000 crore (about USD 525 million), with a preliminary project report prepared by the World Bank, Medical Dialogues reported on 30 July. The Union Budget for 2026-27 proposed support for five regional hubs of this kind.

African outbound spending

About USD 7 billion leaves Africa each year with patients travelling abroad for treatment, and more than 300,000 Africans travel to India alone, on figures reported by BusinessDay on 31 July from a Lagos briefing given by the chief operating officer of a Nairobi teaching hospital. The World Health Organization sets 4.45 doctors, nurses and midwives per 1,000 people as the minimum for adequate care; Africa has about 1.5.

Nigeria’s federal government put the country’s annual loss to medical tourism and preventable diseases together at NGN 4.8 trillion (about USD 3.5 billion). The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Adekunle Salako, gave the figure at a diaspora awards dinner in Abuja reported by The Guardian on 30 July, alongside a diaspora health programme that he said had reached close to 10,000 people directly and trained more than 2,000 frontline health workers across the country’s six geopolitical zones in a single season.

Turkey operator licensing

Turkish medical travel intermediaries have operated under a new licensing regime since a regulation published in the Official Gazette on 26 April 2025 repealed the 2017 framework. Agencies now hold an international health tourism authorisation certificate issued by USHAS, the health ministry’s international services arm, rather than by provincial health directorates, and every treatment episode has to be registered on the state HealthTurkiye portal.

Intermediaries already trading had until 26 October 2025 to comply, and USHAS reviews authorised operators annually against defined performance criteria. USHAS put Turkey’s international health patient volume at 1,506,442 in 2024 and related revenue at about USD 3 billion, roughly 5% of the country’s tourism receipts.

Cosmetic surgery deaths in the Dominican Republic

A 31-year-old United States police officer died in Santo Domingo after surgery to remove breast implants, the second recent death of an American law enforcement officer following cosmetic surgery in the Dominican Republic, Latin Times reported on 4 August. The country’s National Institute of Forensic Sciences has not returned an autopsy, and police have named no clinic and identified no provider under investigation.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 93 American deaths after cosmetic surgery in the Dominican Republic between 2009 and 2022, with fat embolism and pulmonary thromboembolism the leading causes, and liposuction present in every fatal case it reviewed. A separate CDC study published in June 2026 examined more than 2,100 reports of US residents travelling for cosmetic procedures at home and abroad between 2014 and 2024, and identified 21 reports covering about 145 patients with adverse outcomes, four of those reports involving a death.

By the Numbers

1,176.9% rise in pharmacy spending by foreign visitors to South Korea in the first half of 2026 against the first half of 2025, on BC Card transaction data.

1.28 million international patient visits at China’s main foreign-facing hospitals in 2025, up 73.6% on three years earlier, on National Health Commission figures cited by Lianhe Zaobao.

USD 1.26 billion medical tourism revenue in the Philippines in 2024, 23% of the country’s health and wellness tourism revenue, on Department of Tourism figures.

7.1 million international arrivals to Ho Chi Minh City between January and July 2026, on the municipal Department of Tourism’s count.

1,506,442 international health patients treated in Turkey in 2024, on USHAS figures.

3,375 AYUSH visas issued to foreign nationals in the three years to 31 December 2025, against 1,751,088 medical visas, on Ministry of Home Affairs data.

What to Watch

South Korea’s second-half card data will show whether dermatology holds the 67.5% share of foreign medical spending it took in the first half.

The World Bank presentation on the Jewar medical hub to the Uttar Pradesh chief secretary, postponed from 28 July, has still to be rescheduled.

The Dominican Republic’s National Institute of Forensic Sciences has yet to return the autopsy in the death reported on 4 August.

Turkish intermediaries licensed under the April 2025 regulation face their first full annual USHAS performance cycle since the compliance deadline of 26 October 2025.

Currencies converted at mid-market rates on 6 August 2026.