South Korea's tourism bodies are scurrying to attract more foreign medical tourists, largely from China, in a bid to spur the country's rapidly growing tourism industry this year, sources said Wednesday.

According to data by the state-run Korea National Tourism Organization (KNTO), the number of foreign health tourists to South Korea is estimated at 150,000 in 2012, up 25 percent from 120,000 a year ago.

"The state-run tourism agency is aiming to increase the number of foreign medical tourists to the South to 200,000 this year," a KNTO official said.

During the weeklong Spring Festival holiday that started on Feb. 9, many Chinese tourists flocked to Seoul's affluent southern district of Gangnam, which is emerging as a center of medical tourism, he said.

In order to maintain the upward trend, the KNTO is recruiting new employees to lure more medical tourists from Russia and China, the official said.

In addition, private tourism organizations are busy preparing to welcome overseas medical tourists, establishing a body known as the "Korea Medical Tourism Association" in January to handle medical tourism-related projects.

The KNTO is aiming to increase the number of the country's inbound tourists to 12.5 million this year, up 13 percent from the previous year, while it seeks to raise its tourism revenue by 11 percent to US$15.6 billion.

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Source: Yonhap News (Feb. 20, 2013)