The Korea Medical Tourism Promotion Association has signed an agreement with China's largest Web portal Baidu to attract more Chinese medical tourists to South Korea.
The association said Thursday that under the deal signed with Baidu's Korea category service, the portal has installed a new section introducing South Korean hospitals and clinics for treatment of some 20 major ailments.
The system will allow Korean medical institutes to introduce staff, provide customer counseling and hold various events through the portal without having to travel to China or employ a broker.
The association will begin by promoting 20 to 30 medical institutions on Baidu in the first phase before reviewing whether to increase the number of registered clinics based on results such as patient traffic.
The association's president Joo Cheon-gi said the agreement is expected to help curb employment of illegal brokers and exorbitant medical tourism costs.
