Investing 2.7 billion KRW over three years (2.7 billion KRW ≈ $2,025,000 USD)
Daegu City has been selected for the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s \"Wellness Tourism Cluster\" program, securing up to 2.7 billion KRW in project funding over the next three years, including 1.35 billion KRW in national grants (1.35 billion KRW ≈ $1,012,500 USD; total 2.7 billion KRW ≈ $2,025,000 USD).
The initiative aims to build a high-value wellness industry by combining local wellness assets with medical care, healing, and tourism. Daegu, along with Busan, was chosen as a medical-tourism hub under the program.
Wellness has surged since COVID-19 as people put greater emphasis on health and overall quality of life. Wellness tourism, in particular, is emerging as a growth sector: with inbound medical tourists to Korea reaching the million mark, travelers are increasingly seeking longer stays focused on healing, recovery, and prevention—not just treatment.
To date, the city has promoted the \"Medi-City Daegu\" brand to lead Korea’s medical tourism scene. Backed by top-tier regional hospitals, medical-tourism operators, the Medical Tourism Promotion Agency, and the Medi-City Council, Daegu has developed a stay-based tourism model that blends medical services with leisure and culture.
Daegu proved its competitiveness as a national medical-tourism hub by becoming the first city outside the Seoul metropolitan area to welcome 30,000 foreign medical tourists in 2019.
Following the selection, the city plans to prioritize developing Daegu-style \"Medi-Wellness\" signature products, expanding sustainable medical-tourism infrastructure, and boosting international marketing efforts.
Daegu will focus on uncovering diverse wellness assets rooted in its strong medical services and linking them with cultural and culinary experiences to create story-driven, hands-on stay packages. The goal is to expand medi-wellness offerings by developing more than 60 such tourism products.
\"Being chosen for the Wellness Tourism Cluster once again confirms the competitiveness and potential of Daegu’s medical-tourism industry,\" said Jeong Ui-gwan, director of Daegu’s Office for Future Innovation and Growth. \"We will build a new industrial ecosystem where medi-wellness tourism and the region’s advanced medical sector grow together.\"
Daegu = Reporter Song Ji-na sjna1114@viva100.com
