Like other Asian nations, South Korea sees profit in the global health trade./JEAN CHUNG FOR THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

By CHOE SANG-HUN SEOUL, South Korea - In this city’s Apgujeong district, famous for its highend boutiques and plastic surgeons, tourist buses unload Chinese and Japanese visitors looking for some minor surgery as part of their packaged tour.

On the resort island of Jeju, the government is building Health Care Town, a 150-hectare complex of medical clinics and upscale apartments surrounded by 18-hole golf courses and scenic beaches, to lure foreigners in need of medical care.

West of Seoul, on the muddy beaches of Inchon , a new steel-and-glass town is rising to attract foreign visitors, including medical tourists.

South Korea has joined Thailand, Singapore, India and other Asian nations in the lucrative business of medical tourism. Heart bypasses, spinal surgery, hip-joint replacements, cosmetic surgery - procedures that may cost tens of thousands of dollars in the United States - can often be done for one-third or even one-tenth of the cost in Asia, with much shorter waiting times and by specialists often trained in the West.

Americans fleeing the high cost of medicine in the United States have spurred the trend. Last year, 750,000 Americans sought cheaper treatment overseas, a figure projected to reach 6 million by 2010, according to a study by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, a consultancy. Asian nations are also wooing wealthy Middle Eastern patients who have found it more difficult to get a visa to enter the United States since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The number of foreigners coming to South Korea for medical care is still a fraction of those getting treatment in India, Thailand and Singapore, industry officials said. But clinics and the South Korean government are trying hard to attract these tourists, who not only bring in money for cash-strapped hospitals but also help the economy by staying on to shop and sightsee after their procedure is over.

When Hassan and Fatima Al-Abdulla of Qatar arrived in Seoul in October, they found a car and an English-speaking nurse waiting at the airport. Soon they were checking into the Wooridul Spine Hospital so Ms.Abdulla could have surgery for her chronic back and leg pain.

Mr.Abdulla found his wife’s hospital room - furnished with a television, Internet access, private bathroom and an extra bed - so comfortable that he decided to stay with her rather than go to a hotel.

“I feel very good,”she said five days after her surgery.“I can walk and shop now.”

Wooridul Spine Hospital said it expected to draw about 1,000 foreign patients and $1 million in revenue from their treatments in 2008, its third year of wooing foreigners. It said its patients hailed from 47 countries, with about a third from the United States.

Wooridul plans to build a hospital branch, apartments, a concert hall and an art museum on the Jeju island as part of its medical tourism offerings , said Lee Mi-jeong, a Wooridul spokeswoman.

“The town will specialize in medical checkups, long-term convalescence and procedures Korean doctors do well and cheaply, such as plastic surgery and dentistry,” said Kim Kyung-taeg, head of the government-run Jeju Development Center.“We believe this is a major future industry for our island.”