In a just released report issued by Visa and Oxford Economics, the Medical Tourism industry was valued at a staggering USD 439 billion, with a projected growth rate of up to 25% year-over-year for the next 10 years as an estimated three to four percent of the world’s population will travel internationally for healthcare and health-related treatment.
For years the medical travel industry seemed undervalued, yet Visa’s report accounts for growth factors – like some 340 new international airports over the next decade – and the medical travel market could soar to an astronomical USD 3 trillion by 2025.
In its just-released 2016 report, industry-leading journal, Medical Tourism Index (MTI), listed the top 41 destinations for those seeking value-added services and high quality of healthcare across the globe. In it, the similar pattern of global growth emerges: that the United States leads in terms of market share of healthcare travel spending, but Asia’s Thailand, Singapore and South Korea continue to thrive. Both Visa’s and MTI’s findings expect China to overtake the US spot within the next 10 years due to the population’s demand for higher quality of care.
The findings don’t just span the global spectrum but also the age spectrum as well; Visa expects 13 percent of all international travel by 2025 to be older travelers. Meanwhile, a recent survey of 31,000 18-34 year olds from 134 countries by popular booking site TopDeck Travel found that some 88% of them travel internationally between 1 to 3 times annually and that the number only continues to grow.
“The borders to quality healthcare access have begun to dissintegrate.” MTI Co-Authors, Renée-Marie Stephano, JD President of the Medical Tourism Association and Mark Fetscherin, Associate Professor of International Business and Marketing at Rollins College, said a joint statement. “Speculation about the medical tourism industry as a ‘phenomenon’ is over. This report and the rankings of the the Medical Tourism Index provide a unique opportunity for investors seeking new ventures to make smart choices in destinations driving patient travel.”