Global Competitiveness of South Korea and Colombia Medical Tourism Industry

Abstract

Service sector, comprised by the development of transportation, finance and communication and among others, has tourism as one of the most important industries which generates higher income in this sector and has become one of the largest and fastest economic activities globally. Economic implications that generate the tourism industry have led to both developed and developing countries to promote more effective policies in tourism sector as a driver of economic development at the different levels. Therefore, new modalities of tourism such as ―medical tourism‖ have relatively recently appeared, gaining global importance and becoming the focus of countries with competitive advantages in both health and tourism sector because when they are combined it can be a driver of the national economy that can improve the service infrastructure in both sectors. Korea and Colombia are countries that have risen up as new competitors in the medical tourism industry which have implemented strategies to exploit their strengths in order to reach progress and get a similar performance of countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Costa Rica and Brazil, which are well known for this type of tourism. South Korea seems to be more effective in terms of results. Meanwhile Colombia needs to improve various aspects to be more competitive. In this sense, from a comparative approach this thesis will rely on the global competitiveness of South Korea and Colombia in order to give some recommendations to improve the performance in medical tourism. Key words: Global competitiveness, Generalized Double Diamond Model, Medical Tourism, Tourism industry