Why medical tourism is showing a faster region-based growth than expanding globally?

Medical tourism market is registering a regional growth faster than it is expanding globally. Since long, the growth of medical tourism has been viewed on the global plane but in reality, there is a strong undercurrent of region-based growth. A medical tourist is not always willing to travel to the other end of the globe seeking high quality and low-cost healthcare assistance.

Emerging factors that play a significant role are cultural affinity and geographical proximity. These are outplaying the cost and quality factors. Other significant destination parameters include image, infrastructure, and environment of the destination and logistics convenience along with the risk and rewards associated with medical travel.

Cultural affinity and geographical proximity add to patient’s convenience:

While destinations mostly market quality and affordability over others, they need to consider other patient-convenience factors. Patients have different thoughts while accessing cross-border healthcare services. How convenient will it be for me to reach that place?

Will it be a few hours journey or will it take long flight hours to reach the destination? Will the destination understand and respect my culture? Will the destination understand my language? Will I get the required support and cooperation in all respects?

That cultural and geographical factors matter a lot to medical travelers is reflected from the fact that the biggest proportion of medical tourism involves the crossing of just one national border.

The American Journal of Medicine reports over 1.4 millions of Americans in 2017 sought a range of medical services around the world. The same report also mentions that US medical travelers are more likely to visit South America, Central America and the Caribbean Islands for medical tourism. 

According to a report from USITC, South America stands as the most preferred destination for the US medical travelers welcoming 26% of the total visitors. This is followed by Central America (constituting 22% of the US medical travelers) and the Caribbean constituting 20% of them. And who doesn’t know of Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico, Brazil and Columbia as top-ranked global medical tourism destinations?

The numbers also include the diaspora of communities residing in the US preferring healthcare services in the home country. An estimated 92,000 Californians visit Mexico for healthcare services of which nearly 50% are Mexican immigrants residing in the US.

A similar trend is also observed in Europe. Medical travelers from developed European nations are traveling to Poland, Romania, Croatia and other eastern European countries. Just crossing the Adriatic Sea by ferry from the Italian coast, it is quite easy for Italians to avail top quality dental care in Croatia. No hassles in travel. It is pretty easy to get a quality job done at a much lesser cost.

Middle East - The bright example of regional medical tourism development based on cultural affinity and geographical proximity:

 Middle East countries since long are under a tremendous healthcare expenditure burden owing to government funding of overseas treatments for their patients. A survey report showed UAE alone spent $2 billion in abroad healthcare closely followed by Kuwait spending $1.8 billion.

But the situation is changing. Middle East countries have been somewhat successful in reversing the outbound medical tourism trend with appreciable investments in advanced healthcare infrastructure that would serve both domestic and international patients.

Asiainsurancereview reports of 700 healthcare projects valued $60.9 billion in various phases of development expected to raise the quality and scope of healthcare services in the GCC region. Middle East countries have included medical tourism in the policy-framing with Dubai and Abu Dhabi leading in attracting maximum medical tourists.

The results are showing up. Millions of Dirhams spent on abroad medical funding is seeing a downtrend. According to the Dubai Annual Statistical Report 2017 released by Dubai Health Authority (DHA), the number of patients sent overseas in 2017 was 1582 a drop from 1994 in 2016.

Cultural affinity and geographical convenience are well playing their part. According to the numbers released by Dubai Health Authority, the city welcomed 326, 649 medical travelers in 2017, 9.5% up from the previous year. Asians constituted 37% of the medical travelers, Arabs and GCC nationals constituted 31% of them while 15% were from Europe.

Tapping the intra-regional medical tourism potential- the golden opportunity for ME:

In view of the growing trend of regional medical tourism, ME region has vast opportunities to tap. They need to focus on key strategies like:

• Promoting region-based services:

Thomson Reuters in its 2014 report says, $142 billion are spent by Muslims around the world on travel excluding Hajj and Umrah. They rank third in the global community in travel spend next to China and America.

A report released by Euromonitor International, Middle East has the high potential for Halal Tourism boom. The 3rd edition of the Global Halal Tourism Summit has been an important feature in this year’s Arabian Travel Market.

Hotels that do not serve alcohol, pork and have a separate spa and swimming facilities for men and women will create a comfort zone for Arabian medical travelers. Hotels can arrange for prayer rooms, announcements of prayer timings and broadcasting religious programs. Halal tourism also includes the provision of flights with no alcohol and pork served.

KSA has the potential to attract 1.6 billion Muslims riding on religious and medical tourism. The government has already made substantial investments in revamping healthcare infrastructure and is currently running the highest value of healthcare projects in the GCC region.

People often seek refuge in religious practices in times of health crisis. The country known for the Land of Two Mosques can secure its position in medical tourism map by clubbing religious and medical tourism.

• Developing regional associations:

Strong associations between neighboring countries can further help in developing intra-regional medical tourism, a win-win situation for both the destinations and medical travelers. This would include teaming up with top class medical facilities, airlines, hotels and other stakeholders that will add more credibility ensuring best service to medical travelers.

• Improved networking:

Associations cannot be formed without strong networking. Increased B2B events, workshops, conferences, and meets can help in unearthing the trends and issues related to regional medical tourism. These can serve as strong idea-sharing and strategy-creating platforms to support and further expand region-based medical tourism.

•  Marketing strategy:

The patients’ convenience factor has contributed to the growth of regional medical tourism. Destinations should be more specific in identifying the target market and develop products and services based on it.

This will help in creating the right image for the destination and providing more clarity to medical travelers. Requirements of every customer should be given due importance. For the smaller customer segment, a separate marketing strategy for different products and services would work.

About Dr Prem Jagyasi

Dr Prem is an award winning strategic leader, renowned author, publisher and highly acclaimed global speaker. Dr Prem is also leading authority and influencer in Global Healthcare, Medical Tourism and Wellness Tourism.

Thus far, Dr Prem has travelled to more than 65 countries to conduct workshops and addressed numerous international conferences.

Author of National Bestseller - Carve Your Life, he also publishes a bevvy of life-improving 50+ niche web magazines that attracts millions of readers.

He is a certified Professional Chartered Consultant, provides a wide range of consulting, marketing, technology and web services through Dr Prem and Associates with partners based in 35 countries.

Dr Prem further takes great delight in travel photography. Please visit him at https://drprem.com/