Asia-Pacific Health Tourism Market – Industry Trends and Forecast to 2029

Asia-Pacific Health Tourism Market, By Service (Transport, Accommodation, Hospitality and Others), Type of Treatment (Cosmetic Treatment, Dental Treatment, Cardiovascular Treatment, Orthopaedic Treatment, Bariatric Treatment, Fertility Treatment, Cancer Treatment, Ophthalmic Treatment, Neurological Treatment and Others), Age Group (Senior Citizens, Minors and Adults), By Service Provider (Private and Public), Industry Trends and Forecast to 2029.

Market Analysis and Size

Health tourism is a modified version of healthcare industry which mainly focusses towards the needs of patients travelling to international borders for complicated surgeries and medical treatments. Medical tourism is in demand among the global patients especially due to low cost medical treatments in the developing countries compared to developed countries is found to be very costly. Accessibility to low cost services and medical treatments from different tourism departments and local governments acts as a major factor for the growing global health tourism market.

Data Bridge Market Research analyses that the Asia-Pacific health tourism market is expected to reach the value of USD 575.88 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 43.9% during the forecast period. Asia-Pacific transport accounts for the largest service segment in the health tourism market. Global transport provides basic facilities and a major need for the consumers in the medical tourism.

Market Definition

Health tourism is generally referred as a travel procedure by medical patients to international borders for complicated surgeries and medical treatments as per the requirement and recommendation of doctors from the hospitals of patient’s home country. The treatments might include medical services such as orthopaedic treatment, cancer treatment, cardiac surgery, cosmetic surgery, fertility and reproductive treatments, neurosurgery and many other different kinds of treatments. Medical tourism is an improvised version of healthcare systems which provides the patients with medical treatment and services of high quality.

Health Tourism Market Dynamics

This section deals with understanding the market drivers, advantages, opportunities, restraints and challenges. All of this is discussed in detail as below:

Drivers

• Rise in globalization trend

Globalization has been a major driving factor for medical tourism, helping many consumers get the best quality and valued health care treatments. Thus, globalization 75% provides better health treatments and helps save expenses from 25% to 75%, especially for Americans and citizens of developed countries. Hence, the globalization trend allows consumers to get treated with low-cost and advanced treatments across international borders and is expected to drive the global health tourism market.

• Rise in the demand for online medical agencies (OMA)

Most of the countries have developed strategies to promote the digitalization in healthcare services, which creates a demand to seek the best and most valued treatment irrespective of the region; thus, collaboration with foreign organizations improves and if there is a rise in the diagnostics and surgical treatments, it will boost the demand for medical tourism. Thus, the adoption of connectivity technologies, digital platforms and telemedicine is expected to drive the growth of the global health tourism market.

• Higher probability of long waiting lists in developed countries

 The presence of long waiting lists in developed countries, and the currency rate is overvalued compared to developing countries which can be another advantage for the patients in the developed countries to travel to developing countries to bypass the waiting list and get treated on time at a very low price. Thus, the long waiting lists in developed countries are expected to drive the global health tourism market.

Restraints

• Complications in the transfer of medical records

The medical record transfer issue breaks the healthcare system into multiple levels, killing untold patients daily. The doctors and physicians should understand that it is not a medical free market that patients can take advantage of when they are already ill and need emergency treatment. Such an issue is expected to restrain the global health tourism market.

• Upsurge in Complexities due to visa management

The visa information confirmation and the visa processing approvals take longer, which restricts the patients from having the correct treatment at the right time. Delays in treatment can also lead to serious health effects in the patient.

The fraudulent activities, delays and expenses related to visa management will restrict the travelling procedures of the patients, and this is expected to restrict the growth of the global health tourism market.

• Implication of travelling restrictions

The international spread of the COVID-19 outbreak has forced to inculcate the lockdown and restriction situation in all global countries. In this accordance, most major and developed countries such as the U.S., U.K., Germany, Australia, India, Japan and many others have had travelling restrictions for several months, even after WHO denounced the restrictions on international travelling.

Similarly, not only the pandemic situation, any major situation such as war or crisis will impact the tourism industry. The restrictions implicated or the change in the travelling route will have a major impact on inflating the travelling cost, which is expected to restrict the global health tourism market.

Post COVID-19 Impact on Health Tourism Market

COVID-19 created a major impact on the health tourism market as almost every country opted for the shutdown for every production facility except the ones dealing in producing the essential goods. The government took some strict actions such as the shutdown of production and sale of non-essential goods, blocked international trade, and many more to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The only business which was dealing in this pandemic situation were the essential services that were allowed to open and run the processes.

The health tourism market is impacted because of increase in the travelling restrictions across many countries which has halted the travelling facilities. Moreover, the trade wars due to decline in the economic conditions in many developing countries were caused due to shutdown of the market of many major industry. However, the COVID-19 had an adverse effect on the health tourism market as the there was no transportation facilities across countries for consumers and most of the companies had shut their medical tourism operations temporarily for nearly about months.

Recent Developments

• In March, 2019 Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd. announced winning Times Health Icons Awards 2019 in five categories. This award has helped the company boost the growth of its brand value in the market and attracted new customers, resulting in the business expansion to various cities and countries.
• In October 2021, UZ LEUVEN opened a COVID testing center in various places, especially for travellers. This has helped the company reach out to new consumers and expand the business, especially during Ontario Hockey League, organized by the GP association Khobra.

Asia-Pacific Health Tourism Market Scope

The health tourism market is segmented on the basis of service, type of treatment, age group and service provider. The growth amongst these segments will help you analyse meagre growth segments in the industries and provide the users with a valuable market overview and market insights to help them make strategic decisions for identifying core market applications.

Service

• Transport
• Accommodation
• Hospitality
• Others

On the basis of service, the health tourism market is segmented into transport, accommodation, hospitality and others

Type of Treatment

• Cosmetic Treatment
• Dental Treatment
• Cardiovascular Treatment
• Orthopedic Treatment
• Bariatric Treatment
• Fertility Treatment
• Cancer Treatment
• Ophthalmic Treatment
• Neurological Treatment
• Others

On the basis of type of treatment, the health tourism market is segmented into cosmetic treatment, dental treatment, cardiovascular treatment, orthopaedic treatment, bariatric treatment, fertility treatment, cancer treatment, ophthalmic treatment, neurological treatment and others.

Age Group

• Senior Citizens
• Minors
• Adults

On the basis of age group, the health tourism market is segmented into senior citizens, minors and adults.

Service Provider

• Private
• Public

On the basis of service provider, the health tourism market is segmented into private and public.

Health Tourism Market Regional Analysis/Insights

The health tourism market is analysed and market size insights and trends are provided by country, service, age group, type of treatment and service providers as referenced above.

The countries covered in the health tourism market report China, Japan, India, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia & New Zealand, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, Philippines, rest of Asia-Pacific.

China dominates the Asia-Pacific region as the number of sales of vehicles is increasing year over year and the development towards digitalizing the infrastructure related to medical treatment and healthcare services.

The country section of the report also provides individual market impacting factors and changes in market regulation that impact the current and future trends of the market. Data points like down-stream and upstream value chain analysis, technical trends and porter's five forces analysis, case studies are some of the pointers used to forecast the market scenario for individual countries. Also, the presence and availability of Asia-Pacific brands and their challenges faced due to large or scarce competition from local and domestic brands, impact of domestic tariffs and trade routes are considered while providing forecast analysis of the country data.

Competitive Landscape and Health Tourism Market Share Analysis

The health tourism market competitive landscape provides details by competitor. Details included are company overview, company financials, revenue generated, market potential, investment in research and development, new market initiatives, Asia-Pacific presence, production sites and facilities, production capacities, company strengths and weaknesses, product launch, product width and breadth, application dominance. The above data points provided are only related to the companies' focus related to health tourism market.

Some of the major players operating in the health tourism market are Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd., Fortis Healthcare, KPJ Healthcare Berhad, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation, Seoul National University Hospital, ADITYA BIRLA HEALTH SERVICES LTD., Samitivej PCL, BARBADOSIVF.COM, BB Healthcare Solutions, UZ LEUVEN, Berkalp Co-Limited, MEDIC ABROAD, AMERICAN MEDICAL CARE, MEDICINE PARK UNITED KINGDOM, Hospital Galenia, Centro Médico ABC, Medica Sur, AMITA Health, Allen Medical International and Med Tourism Co, LLC among others.