Health Tourism
Medical tourism can be defined as consumption of health services abroad; the movement of consumers to the country providing the service for diagnosis and treatment. Historically, health tourism was regarded as a nature-based form of tourism. It was associated with spas and other facilities that relied on a supply of purportedly therapeutic water or mud. This form of tourism enjoyed a prominent status in global tourism prior to the Second World War, but declined in importance after it.
There is more evidence that the health care is becoming truly global and that the national borders are becoming more porous. Patients nowdays are travelling abroad more often than ever before in search of a treatment, either because is not available in their own country or because it is cheaper, more sophisticated or available more rapidly elsewhere. In countries like Britain, which heavily rely on public health care system, the waiting lists for even a simple treatment can be quite long. Not surprisingly people opt to travel abroad to destinations where the time spent waiting can be reduced to a minimum. Although the trade in medical tourism has existed for many years, the political and economic changes over the past few years made it available to the wider group of people. It is not about affluent foreigners going for a treatment to the best clinics in Western Europe or America anymore. It has become a very much two way traffic, with more people from developed countries going to seek a high-quality treatment in developing countries, where the cost implications are lower.
The most popular medical tourism destinations are Thailand, Singapore, India, The Philippines, Malaysia, Hong-Kong and Cuba. Dubai - a destination already known as a luxury vacation paradise - is scheduled to open the Dubai Healthcare City by 2010, which will be the largest medical centre between Europe and Southeast Asia . In Europe, the former ex-Soviet states such us Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic are gaining in importance. France and Spain, with their long-established medical traditions, are also popular destinations. Some countries differentiate themselves by offering specialist treatments that are hardly available anywhere else, for example Cuba focuses on treatments of certain skin diseases, incurable in other countries, whereas Ukraine markets itself as an expert in infertility treatments. The most popular treatments among health tourists are cosmetic surgery, dentistry, orthopaedic surgery and cardiac care, although the full list of services available is much longer.
The real attraction for many tourists is still price. Costs of surgeries or dental treatments vary between industrialized nations and developing ones very much. The lower price often does not mean the poorer quality of service. The clinics that cater to the tourist market are usually among the best in the world backed up by the staff with the highest qualifications in the industry. The examples are Escort Heart Institute in Delhi or Bumrundgrad hospital in Bangkok. Clinics in some countries have unlimited access to sophisticated research resources as well as India and South Korea are pushing ahead with stem cell research at a level approached only in Britain. But health tourism can also carry certain risks. Patients are not always covered by insurance in situations where after-surgery complications might arise. Some believe that most of chronic diseases cannot be treated after a single consultation.
Health testing - Professional medical assessments for adults
Dentistry overseas - Specialist in low cost dentistry abroad
The health market is expected to grow rapidly in the next years. According to Carrera et al (2006), health tourism at an international level is sustained by 617 million individuals with an annual growth of 3.9% annually and worth US$513 billion. It is estimated that medical tourism in India alone could be worth $2.2 billion by 2012. The growth in Europe will also be significant. According to an independent research carried out by TreatmentAbroad.net (2006), found out that 52500 Britons travel abroad for a treatment every year. It is quite a remarkable number, knowing that 10 years ago the market was significantly smaller. There are also other trends that will contribute to the increase of popularity of medical tourism. It is estimated that by 2015 there will be 220 million 'Baby Boomers' in the developed countries and their state of health will gradually deteriorate. It is believed that they will be a prevailing force behind the further growth of inexpensive and high-quality medical care abroad
