Medical Tourism

Definition
Medical tourism is a relatively new term to describe a growing number of people worldwide that travel abroad for healthcare. Why these people travel and for what varies, but essentially there are two types of medical tourists – the leisure tourist that incorporates a visit to the doctor for some minor treatment, as part of his or her vacation, and the tourist travelling specifically for medical treatment.

What are the drivers behind
medical tourism?
Before there even was a term 'medical tourism', it was common practice among the well-heeled in developing countries to travel to the USA, Switzerland and Germany for medical care. However, over the past five years this trend has been turned upside down and now countries such as Thailand, are attracting patients from the USA, Canada and the UK.

This new niche market has evolved as healthcare systems worldwide are struggling to meet the medical needs of their populations. In the United States, the price of healthcare is beyond the means of many and there are an estimated 40 million uninsured people. While in Britain, Canada and Holland, socialised healthcare guarantees affordability, demand for medical services far outstrips supply and waiting lists for surgical procedures or specialty medicine can be as long as two-to-three years.

Today, governments, insurers and employers are carefully looking at medical outsourcing as a way to improve access and lower healthcare costs for their citizens, policyholders and employees.

Thailand’s healthcare services are about half the cost of similar services in Singapore, one-third the cost of Hong Kong and one-tenth the cost in the United States.

Who are the medical tourists and what are they coming for?

By and large, medical tourists are travelling for specialty medical and surgical services. The recent surge in the popularity of plastic surgery, however, has led to a new wave of medical tourists and headlines like "Sun, sea and surgery" or "Scalpel tourism" have helped create buzz for this emerging phenomenon. Medical tourism destinations such as Thailand promotes the benefit of high-quality medical care as just one more reason to visit the kingdom.

Elective out-patient procedures like check-ups, dental care, LASIK are becoming increasingly popular and there is a growing interest on the part of the tourism industry to include these services as part of their travel packages. Higher intensity medical services, like spinal and cardiac surgery, pose a bigger challenge because these medical services are not as easily packaged and require significantly more knowledge about medicine.

Who are the players?
Bumrungrad Hospital located in central Bangkok is a dominant player in the medical tourism field in Thailand, attracting over 360,000 international patients annually from over 150 countries worldwide. But Bumrungrad is not alone. There are quite a few other hospitals in Thailand and also regionally that are aggressively marketing their hospitals to capture a slice of this fast growing market. Both Bumrungrad Hospital and the India-based Apollo Hospital were recently featured on the CBS award winning news programme "60 Minutes" as medical tourism destinations for a growing number of Americans.

What is the future?
Reliable figures on the size and growth of medical tourism are hard to come by, as government and immigration statistics do not yet categorize inbound travellers coming for medical care. That said, the Tourism Authority of Thailand is actively promoting medical tourism as medical tourists on average spend more and stay longer than leisure travellers.

Ruben Toral, Group Marketing Director for Bumrungrad Hospital, sums it up this way. "In five years time, the idea of hopping on a plane and travelling overseas to get a hip replacement or a heart operation will be commonplace. People around the world are looking for the same things in healthcare – high quality, immediate access and affordable prices – and if they cannot find that combination at home, then they will seek alternatives abroad." This niche market has tremendous protential for Thailand’s healthcare providers and also represents an opportunity for airlines, hoteliers and tour operators.