The past
few weeks brought two new reports pointing to growth in the medical tourism
market.
An April
report report titled “World Medical Tourism Market—Opportunities and Forecasts,
2014–2022," projects the world medical tourism market could reach $143.8
billion by 2022.
The study
was published by Allied Market Research (AMR).
And the
Medical Tourism Association (MTA) agrees that interest in the niche is
climbing. CEO Jonathan Edelheit says “the industry has maintained a 15%-plus
growth per year, and many of the destinations around the world are reporting
increases in medical tourists.”
Established in 2007, the Florida-based Medical
Tourism Association is made up of 400,000 global members including countries,
healthcare clusters, hospitals, facilitators, and insurance companies.
The MTA’s
Global Medical Tourism Index, released this week, ranks 41 countries based on
34 criteria, with input from over 4,000 respondents from across the United
States. The top five ranking countries are Canada, the U.K., Israel,
Singapore, and India. Canada ranked number one in the category Destination
Environment; India ranked first in Medical Tourism Industry; and Israel topped
the list for Quality of Facilities and Services.
The study
found that buyers all over the world are entering the market at a much faster
pace than before. Medical tourism also is becoming regionalized; two new events
for MTA are the China Conference, June 3-5, and the Abu Dhabi Conference,
November 22-23, 2016.
Industry
drivers
The major
factors contributing to market growth are the “affordability, availability, and
accessibility of superior quality healthcare services with healthy support and
assistance from tourism departments and local governments,” says AMR research
analyst Vivek Singh.
Also
pushing the growth are the increasing incidence of cancer and other serious
ailments, and the rise of medical tourism associations and medical travel
agencies to help combat them.
AMR
predicts that North America and Asia-Pacific will remain the principal
revenue-generating regions. They accounted for more than 60% of the global
medical tourism market in 2015. Within North America, Mexico was the biggest
customer, followed by the United States. In the Asia-Pacific region, the major
shareholders are Thailand, Singapore, and India.
Growth
inhibitors
As much
as the industry is poised for great growth, there are identified deterrents:
“Limited
coverage and lengthy partial reimbursement offered by insurance companies along
with difficulties associated with cross-border travel, such as language
barriers, connectivity, documentation, and visa approval issues, are likely to
restrict the market growth,“ Singh noted.
On the
destination side, Edelheit says the MTA is seeing some destinations fail in
their efforts to establish themselves in the field of medical tourism for
reasons including “a lack of the industry coming together to support their
destination” and “healthcare providers that do not necessarily have the
experience in international patient services, or the technology in place to
handle incoming patients.”
Las
Vegas wants to be a player
In the
United States, Las Vegas is one destination that has been creating a solid
base for future development as a medical destination.
“Providing
medical care is a serious business,” Cheryl Smith, specialty markets manager
for the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority (LVCVA), told TMR.
“It requires a responsible approach, and we want it to be on par with other
services the city is known for.”
She says
the city has been working since 2011 to bring the medical and hospitality
communities together. “The LVCVA and its regional partners are developing the
industry from multiple perspectives and looking at medical tourism in a
comprehensive way, and not simply as a travel sector.”
Las Vegas
has developed a series of strategic initiatives to support the growing volume
of medical travelers over the coming years, including:
- Bringing the local hospitality and medical industry sectors together to see where they intersect.
- Introducing legislation to fund and support new medical schools to educate future health-care professionals.
- Addressing the need for physicians by making it easier for physicians from other states to obtain licensing in Nevada.
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