THE
IRRESISTIBLY beautiful boys and girls appearing in South Korean films, TV soaps
and music videos seems to be one of the key factors that has given rise to the
Korean wave across the region, including Thailand.
With the
influx of Korean culture through various entertainment outlets, Thai audiences
are able to fantasise about becoming TV stars themselves by opting to look like
their favourite star by undergoing plastic surgery in South Korea. And this
need has offered a huge opportunity to top hospitals in Seoul's Gangnum
district.
"With
the rising trend of plastic surgery in the country, we believe that in general,
we will see a rise of at least 20 per cent in Thai plastic surgery
patients," Tapaphon Jongrugsak, manager of Jewerly Medical Group, a member
of the South Korean Jewerly Plastic Surgery, told The Nation.
Unfortunately,
due to patients' confidentiality requirements, there are no exact official
statistics on the number of Thais who have visited South Korea for plastic
surgery.
Apart
from the Korean wave, which has made plastic surgery in South Korea so popular,
Tapaphon suggested that rising plastic surgery prices and scandals in the
Kingdom were the other key factor taking Thais to Seoul for beauty-enhancement
services.
'Bad
jobs'
"Over
the past few decades, local consumers have learned a lesson from the many bad
jobs done cheaply by poor quality surgeons. The perception of plastic surgery
now is that of high-value investment for more satisfactory returns,"
Tapaphon explained.
The Jewerly
Medical Group is one of the top plastic surgery hospitals that has made its
presence felt in Thailand, while other top five hospitals, including Grand
Plastic Surgery and ID Hospital, are also providing consultancy services via
overseas hotlines and website, but only in Thai.
Meanwhile,
JW Plastic Surgery, another top-ranking beauty clinic from South Korea, opened
its first branch in Bangkok recently.
"Plastic
surgery is now well received by Thai consumers. [It] is almost becoming a new
norm in society," Aliza Inthaseni, chief executive officer of Prime Medica
Group, a partner of JW Plastic Surgery, said.
She added
that under this partnership, which also covers Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and
Myanmar, her company aims to open two more branches in the Kingdom this year.
Each JW Plastic Surgery clinic requires an investment of at least Bt20 million,
and will provide cosmetic surgery for the nose, face, eyes and breasts by
well-trained Thai doctors. The standard at these clinics will be the same as
that in South Korea.
Prime
Medica Group also hopes to have some 30 to 50 plastic surgery patients this
year, and aims to transfer some Thai patients and those from neighbouring
countries for procedures in South Korea.
Apart
from aggressively expanding private hospitals overseas, the South Korean
government is also attracting international medical tourists by offering a full
tax refund. According to the Health and Welfare Ministry, foreign patients
undergoing cosmetic surgery in South Korea from April 1 until March 31, 2017
will get a full refund of the 10-per-cent value-added tax.
The
cosmetic and plastic surgery operations covered include double eye-lid,
rhinoplasty, breast surgery (reduction/augmentation), liposuction, facelift,
facial bone contouring, teeth whitening, laminate, gingivoplasty, orthognathic
surgery among others.
Seoul
TouchUp, a South Korean government-approved medical tourism agency, said on its
official website that judging from the growth in medical tourism, the
popularity of plastic surgery in South Korea would continue to rise, at least
until 2020.
Watchiranont
Thongtep
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