BUENOS AIRES, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Argentina's reputation as a top-notch center for plastic surgery has become a booming tourist draw amid the country's ongoing economic crisis, as the devaluation of the peso makes esthetic enhancement more affordable to foreigners.
According to Patricio Jacovella, member of the Argentine Society of Plastic Surgery, "the rate of inquiries into surgery and operations on foreigners has risen by 50 percent since June."
Dubbed "medical tourism," Jacovella said most of the patients looking for a cheap nip or tuck hail from Chile, where one travel agency has been offering "touch-up tours" to Argentina.
"I had wanted to get an operation done, but in my country it costs $5,000 ... here I paid only $2000," said Esmeralda Vargas Vergara, a Chilean who spent two weeks in Buenos Aires having various surgeries and indulging in a shopping spree to suit her new dimensions.
Vergara, 39, told Argentine newspaper La Nacion that she had traveled to Argentina to have her breast augmented and fat removed form her hips.
"The operation took only two hours," said Vergara. "Now I can stop buying girl's bras."
Doris James, an Argentine beautician living in the Chilean capital Santiago, was one of the first entrepreneurs to recognize the untapped niche market of plastic surgery tours following Argentina's economic collapse in December 2001.
A month later the peso -- once pegged at one-to-one with the greenback -- was deregulated and has since slipped to 3.5 to the dollar.
James has capitalized on her homeland's misfortune and turned medical tourism into a profitable business venture that offers package trips to several cities in Argentina.
Prices are based on the type of surgery performed, plus the cost of room and board and other services
Before departure, patients consult with Argentine surgeons in Santiago, and are then flown to Argentina in groups of seven. "We have departures every week," James said.
The tour also includes accommodations and breakfast for $25 a day.
Despite the fact that medical tourism has breathed new life into one segment of Argentina's floundering economy, some plastic surgeons told La Nacion, they resent the influx of foreign patients and the notion of "express surgical procedures" that the new tour plan fosters.
"I do not like the term (express surgery)," explained Manuel Sarrabayrouse, head of the Esthetics Department at Hospital Italiano. "Let's not forget a surgical procedure is a type of controlled violence on the body. It can't be taken lightly," he added.
"It's not like they went out and visited a hairdresser."
