Economic effects of medical tourism are changing the fabric of economies around the world. Here’s how.
For centuries the concept of medical tourism revolved around patients of the less advanced and less developed territories travelling to the more technologically advanced areas of the world to seek treatment. With the dawn of the industrial revolution and more recently, the age of information however, this is no longer the case as the possession of advanced medical knowledge is no longer exclusive to advanced countries. Therefore the economic effects of medical tourism are now experienced acrossthe world.
This has caused a phenomena where citizens of the more advanced countries travel to developing countries to receive the same treatments that are available in their own homeland with the purposes of incurring less costs and saving money in the process. Here we will look at the economic impacts of this paradigm shift in destination countries. Before we do so, there are a number of key factors that we should keep in mind as we proceed to examine these effects:
- Travelling patients do not necessarily belong to the economic upper class of their country, still they are generally better-off than most of the citizens of their destination.
- Most developing countries look at medical tourism as a unique opportunity to generate more GDP and improve their national economy, thus they heavily support it.
- In order to continuously attract medical tourists, the medical centers in these countries need to continuously maintain high standards.
The Revenue Generated by Medical Tourism
Incoming medical tourists and their activities during their stay, such as staying in hotels and accommodations, generate huge amounts of income for the host country.
There will be cultural exchange between the citizens of these states which further creates opportunities for trade deals between active companies and agencies and even on the state level and thus creating more jobs increasing the GDP of both states.
In order to better understand the amount of growth that this type of income has experienced it is noteworthy that in 2007, 750 thousand US citizens traveled abroad with medical purposes. In 2015 this number was 19 million. That is a growth of more than 250 percent.
India is one of the foremost receivers of these patients, a country that is expected to make more than 7 billion Dollars from medical tourism by the end of 2020.
Reverse Immigration
Medical tourism encourages doctors and nurses to work in their home country. However many of the medical centers located in popular medical tourism destinations provide similar salaries to the medical centers of developed countries. Considering these similarities in salaries and the level of the medical services rendered, in the recent years we have witnessed an increasing number of doctors move from developed countries to developing countries. Nowadays, seeing doctors from Europe and the USA working in countries like Singapore, Thailand or Ukraine is not an anomaly anymore.
Improving the Quality of Medical Services
Naturally, medical tourists demand the highest quality of treatment, the very best of medical equipment, and the observation of international standards. A country looking to attract these patients, is all but forced to enforce these requirements in all of its medical centers. With the increase of the incoming medical tourists, more and more medical centers undergo upgrades and overhauls to the point that a country’s healthcare system completely changes in nature for the better. This also benefits the citizens of the host country as they also use the same healthcare system.
The Rise of the Medical Tourist Hospitality Industry

The Burmungrad International hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, was one of the first in the world to successfully blend hospitals and hotels into a single complex. The hospital is the beating heart of Thai medical tourism with an estimate 400,000 medical tourists visiting it annually according to the Thai government.
The prominence and fame of medical tourism has given birth to another related industry: the medical tourist hospitality industry. There are an increasing number of hotels and resorts constructed with the specific purpose of accommodating medical tourists and their attendants in many destinations countries. In 2015, 15 percent of the entire Thai medical tourism income was in fact generated by the medical tourist hospitality industry. Many of these hotels and resorts hire their personnel from the local population, creating more jobs in the process.
Correlation with Normal Tourism
Medical tourism is first and foremost a manner of tourism. Most medical tourists often plan to visit the touristic attractions of their destination alongside the process of their treatment and often visit the cultural, historical and natural attractions of their host country during their convalescence period. This complementary relationship between the two industries creates business links between the active agencies and companies active in these fields and therefore creates more jobs. Based on a 2008 report from the World Health Organization, alongside its own revenue, medical tourism also generated 1.8 billion Dollars for the tourism industry.
Medical Equipment and Pharmaceutical Section
With the increase of incoming medical tourists, the industries that have close ties to healthcare, such as the pharmaceutical and surgical equipment sections, also experience growth in their production and revenue. Surgeries make up the largest amount of medical procedures rendered to medical tourists. Here, the economic effects of tourism is clear, as medical tourists directly affect the revenue and production growth in the surgical equipment industry.
In modern medicine, there are few procedure that do not require some form of pharmaceutical drug. Painkillers and antibiotics are a consistent factor in many treatments. Therefore the increase of medical tourists also creates a new market and audience for this industry in the host country.
The Economic and Political Effects
The increase in cross-border travels between countries facilitates the improvement of relations between states and the signing of treaties such as Visa Non-Requirement treaties. All the while there will be cultural exchange between the citizens of these states which further creates opportunities for trade deals between active companies and agencies and even on the state level; and thus creates more jobs increasing the GDP of both states.
Medical tourism has paved the way for friendly and beneficial relations between countries and global growth. It is undeniable that medical tourism has played a key, multi-faceted role on a country’s society, economy and governance.
Article by: Parsa Khaknezhad