In this globalised world, the tourism and travel industry is flourishing with a rapid speed. It has become an important part for economies of all countries. There are various sub-types of this tourism industry and few of them are about health, beauty, fitness and wellness tourism. As time is passing, more and more customers are becoming more conscious about their fitness, beauty and health. For this, they even prefer to visit to other countries. The concept of plastic surgeries has been derived from this enhanced orientation towards beauty, health and fitness. This is covered under the medical tourism concept and the present research is basically about the role of medical tourism in South Korea for attracting more international tourists towards this destination. This research has reviewed the previous studies about the medical tourism industry of South Korea and intergenerational differences in preference for medical tourism. Then using the secondary data, it has explored how Generation X and Generation Y are attracted towards this industry of South Korea. Moreover, it also explores the role of celebrity endorsement in stimulating the South Korean medical tourism industry. It is found that both generations are equally attracted towards South Korea for getting various kinds of plastic surgeries. The motivations, concerns and orientation of both generations are different but it is concluded that both are attracted towards the medical tourism of South Korea. It is also found that both international and South Korean celebrities are stimulating to get medical tourism from South Korea. At the end, future research recommendations are also provided.

1.Introduction

Health and medical tourism is considered to be a fast developing sector in growing South Korea. On yearly basis, large number of individuals travel across the globe for attaining different types of healthcare and beauty services. As the medical tourism sector of South Korea is quite developed and it offers medical services with the help of numerous public and private hospitals, therefore, it has become an attractive destination for those individuals who aim to get beauty treatment (Holliday and Elfving-Hwang, 2012). Overall, the tourism industry of South Korea is growing and it has different tourism places and people travel to South Korea for enjoying summer vacations. In South Korea the tripsparticularly for older and handicapped individuals are very useful in spreading the health tourism over year. There are large number of international touriststhat come go to South Korea for treatment of differentbeauty related issues. There are different institutes, working in South Korea and providing services for hair transplantation,  dermatology, cancer treatments along with orthopedics and plastic surgeriesandesthetic operations. Other types of beauty services provided in South Korea include rhinoplasty, breast enlargement, breast lessening, and breastinvigorating as well as eyelids surgery and liposuction surgeries (Euromonitor, 2016).

Moreover, currently, more people are getting conscious about health of their teeth and seeking dental surgeries. South Korea is becoming a hub for health and medical tourism and offers excellent quality treatments with exceptional charges. InSouth Korea, doctors are highly competent and service providers are focusing on western standards for providing services. Water typicallyacts as a vital part, with hot and cold pools and ponds. Various types of massages and skin treatments are also offered by South Korea. There are different types of hotels in South Korea that provide thalasso therapy as well as spa services to the tourists (Arnault, 2016). These all beauty services have become an attraction for tourists from all over the world. Tourists visit South Korea to get the benefit out of the wonderful beauty treatment opportunities which are available there. According to Yu and Ko (2012),  South Korea has rapidly rising over the past two decades. It has more than 25 modern international beauty and health centers which are having advanced facilities for beauty tourists. The tourists from various countries like Japan and China visit South Korea to get the advantage of huge cost savings and excellent care South Korea is offering to its tourists. Likewise, there are also thousand of tourist from Eastern Russia which are visiting South Korea for getting beauty and health treatments. The government of Korea has also adopted various programs for marketing of such advanced service and it has even simplified the process of getting visas for beauty and health tourists. South Korea has invested millions of dollars in the promotion of beauty and health tourism and it is helping it in real sense to attract tourists. Though, tourists of different profiles are visiting the South Korea, it is observed that tourists from Generation X ha