To remedy the major blow on tourism because of MERS, the South Korea government has decided to carry out tax reimbursement for tourists' plastic surgeries beginning in April, 2016.
Reported by Bloomberg, foreign tourists can enjoy multiple tax reimbursements for plastic surgeries like face-lifts, boob jobs, and liposuction etc. Starting in April 2016, foreign tourists can receive a 10 percent tax refund for plastic surgeries.
Because of MERS, the number of tourists that came to South Korea fell by 40 percent. Among which, Taiwanese tourists were down by 76 percent, and tourists from Hong Kong reduced by 75 percent.
Based on the statistics released by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS), 2 percent of the South Korean population has had plastic surgery. And among the over 4 million plastic surgeries in 2014, 5 percent of them took place in South Korea.
The Government of South Korea hopes to attract more tourists, especially Chinese tourists, by implementing the new policy. In the past 3 years, the annual growth rate of foreign tourists coming to South Korea for plastic surgeries was about 70.5 percent, and 70 percent of them are Chinese.
