Medical & Health Tourism
- M. AL-AGEDI
- Jan 8, 2019
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 24
A rising solution for unsolved growing problems!
The practice of traveling for medical treatment dates back thousands of years, with Greeks journeying to Epidauria, a small region in the Saronic Gulf, marking the earliest known instance.
Historically, individuals from less-developed nations traveled to advanced countries for medical care, typically seeking treatments unavailable or of lower quality in their home countries.
Today, the trend has shifted and continues to evolve. Currently, people predominantly travel from developed nations to developing ones. The reasons for this shift include lower costs, shorter waiting times, and other factors.
With the growth of the industry, the term "medical or health tourism" has spawned new terms that specify the type of treatment, such as dental tourism, fertility tourism, and wellness tourism. Nearly every type of healthcare service is available, including psychiatry.
Countries interested in this form of tourism have begun to assess their inbound and outbound medical and health tourism activities.
According to the Medical Tourism Magazine, the top 10 medical tourism destinations worldwide are:
India
Brazil
Malaysia
Thailand
Turkey
Mexico
Costa Rica
Taiwan
South Korea
Singapore
European countries no longer appear in the top 10 list, including nations like Croatia, Finland, Serbia, and even France, which ranked #7 in the Medical Tourism Index just two years ago in 2016.
The Medical Tourism industry is valued at an impressive USD 100 billion, with an anticipated annual growth rate of up to 25% over the next decade, according to a recent report by VISA and Oxford Economics.
An estimated 3 to 4 percent of the global population will travel abroad for healthcare and health-related treatments.
Where does your country stand in this market today, and where will it be in the next 10 years?
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