ASIA’S medical tourism market is growing, with many of the opportunities lying within the region itself.
At PATA Annual Summit’s Medical Tourism Integration to the Complete Visitor Economy session, Kenneth Mays, marketing director, Bumrungrad International Hospital in Thailand, said: “The US and Obamacare do not generate big opportunities for Asian hospitals. Real growth is not coming from the US but from the region within a seven-hour flight radius like Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia.”
“Medical tourism is a middle class phenomenon,” remarked Julie Munro, president and founder of Medical Travel Quality Alliance and CEO of medical tourism consultancy InterMed Global US, which has offices in Bangkok and Singapore. “The middle class population in Asia is about 500 million today, and this number is expected to increase to 1.75 billion while healthcare expenditure is predicted to grow 15 per cent by 2020.”
Zadok S Lempert, president & CEO of Thailand-based Panorama-Medica Group, added: “Asia has been the preferred destination over the last decade due to high-quality, less expensive medical treatments. It is a niche market that is becoming mainstream.”
Ralf Krewer, international marketing director, Bangkok Hospital, explained that the distinction between medical tourists and leisure travellers was being blurred, leading to a new global patient. “Patients are behaving like consumers, seeking higher service levels and evaluating the total package and not just medical expertise,” he said.
– Read more on how to tap this segment in TTG Asia May 3, 2013
