[DigitalToday reporter Lee Ji-young (이지영)] Danal is installing foreigner-only prepaid card kiosks at offline K-beauty medical hubs to expand payment convenience for foreign visitors to South Korea.

Danal said on Wednesday it will install KONDA kiosks at the UnniGuide Center, a space for foreign tourists run by Healing Paper, operator of the beauty-medical platform Gangnam Unni.

The UnniGuide Center is a K-beauty medical concierge space Healing Paper set up in March in Seoul’s Gangnam district. It provides foreign tourists with one-to-one customised support across the full medical use process, including dermatology and plastic surgery reservations, interpretation support and consultations.

Danal plans to build KONDA issuance kiosks at the center, which is frequented by foreign visitors, to provide card issuance and top-ups, and currency exchange services.

KONDA is a rechargeable prepaid card service for foreign tourists. It can be topped up through a dedicated app and kiosks, and provides payment functions needed by foreign visitors to South Korea, including online shopping, delivery app orders, transit card use and ATM withdrawals.

From July, foreign tourists will be able to issue cards at the kiosks installed at the UnniGuide Center and use them at affiliated merchants across the country, including Seoul.

Danal plans to deploy kiosks at key hubs including areas with heavy foreign tourist foot traffic such as Myeongdong and Hongdae, as well as airports, the World K-Pop Center and the UnniGuide Center, to expand the KONDA service.

A Danal official said building the kiosks at the UnniGuide Center is an important milestone to pre-empt demand for K-medical tourism payments worth 12 trillion won and provide foreign visitors to South Korea with a borderless beauty and medical consumption experience. The official said the company will expand payment hubs and grow KONDA into an essential platform for travel in South Korea.