The medical hotel business was added as a subcategory of the hotel along with the ‘small hotel’ with the revision of the Enforcement Decree of Tourism Promotion Act in 2014. The purpose was to ‘enhance the convenience of medical tourists and promote medical tourism.’ However, the registration qualifications for the medical hotel are limited to foreign patient-attracting medical institutions or agencies, and the target customers are restricted to foreign medical tourists, limiting its activation as intended.
Medical hotels have commonalities with family hotels, timeshares, and residential lodgings in that they are equipped with cooking facilities, but medical hotels do not form a direct competitive relationship with the rest as they target specific demand.
The registration standards for medical hotels as stipulated in Annex 1 of the Enforcement Decree of Tourism Promotion Act are as follows:
- Each room must have cooking facilities that can be used by medical tourists, or communal kitchens must be installed on each floor.
- There must be at least 20 guestrooms equipped with bathrooms or shower facilities.
- The area of each guestroom must be at least 19 square meters.
- Amenities must not include those defined in Article 9, Items 13, 22, 23, and 26 of the Act on the Protection of Educational Environment.
- The hotel must have a system in place to facilitate convenient access for medical tourists.
- The hotel must have a system in place to provide services to foreigners, such as employing staff proficient in foreign languages.
- The medical hotel facilities (excluding medical institutions established as ancillary facilities of the medical hotel under Article 3, Paragraph 1 of the Medical Service Act) must be separated from medical institution facilities. This is ensured by:
- Having the main functional areas of the medical hotel and medical institution in separate buildings.
- Having the main functional areas of the medical hotel and medical institution on different floors within the same building.
- Having the main functional areas of the medical hotel and medical institution on the same floor within the same building but separated by partitions and separate entrances.
- Medical hotels must secure ownership or usage rights of the land and buildings.
- To register as a medical hotel operator, the applicant must be a foreign patient-attracting medical institution or agency that meets the following criteria:
- For Foreign Patient-Attracting Medical Institutions:
- The institution must have reported its business performance to the Minister of Health and Welfare under Article 11 of the Act on Support for Overseas Expansion of Medical Services and Attraction of Foreign Patients, with the total number of patients exceeding 500 in the previous year or the most recent year before the registration application date. If located in Seoul, the number must exceed 3,000.
- If the institution is a medical corporation under Article 33, Paragraph 2, Item 3 of the Medical Service Act, it must not jointly register with another foreign patient-attracting medical institution or agency.
- If a nonprofit corporation, where the largest contributor is a foreign patient-attracting medical institution, has contributed at least 30% of the establishment fund, it must meet the above criteria.
- For Agencies:
- The agency must have reported its business performance to the Minister of Health and Welfare under Article 11 of the Act on Support for Overseas Expansion of Medical Services and Attraction of Foreign Patients, with the actual number of patients exceeding 200 in the previous year or the most recent year before the registration application date.
- If the largest shareholder or stockholder holding at least 30% of the shares is a foreign patient-attracting medical institution, it must meet the criteria for foreign patient-attracting medical institutions mentioned above.
- For Foreign Patient-Attracting Medical Institutions:
