According to a new study by Future Market Insights (FMI), the medical tourism market is set to grow at 12% CAGR in 2022.  As per the Thailand Board of Investment, more than 50 applications for investments, worth over USD 400 million were submitted during the first half of 2020 to introduce a range of novel measures, accelerating investment in the medical sector.

Between 2020 and 2030, the market is forecast to exhibit 12.3% CAGR, as the number of medical tourists is expected to rise at 11% over the same period. Factors such as increasing healthcare costs in the West, increasing incidence of chronic ailments, and surging demand for various cosmetic procedures have been resulting in the soaring medical tourism.

While healthcare efforts remained focused on managing the COVID-19 crisis, reversing growth projections to an extent for 2020, with the situation stabilising, treatment of life-threatening diseases and chronic ailments will begin gaining traction 2021 onwards.

The U.S. is expected to lead in terms of healthcare travel spending, however, in the coming years China’s spending is forecast to surge considerably. Among services offered under medical tourism, therapeutic services are highly sought-after. Wellness services too are gaining traction as an increasing number of medical tourists are seeking meditation and wellness retreats. Phone and online booking will remain more preferred modes of booking for medical tourism. Medical tourism is often sought for cancer and cardiovascular treatment. Besides this, cosmetics and bariatric procedures are very popular among medical tourists.

Proactive steps taken by government and non-government organisations will enable the medical tourism market sail despite losses incurred during COVID-19. Medical tourism market is expanding at a fast rate. Tier 1 companies such as AsklepiosKlinikenGmbH, Bangkok DusitMedical Services, Fortis Healthcare Limited, Apollo Healthcare, BumrugrandInternational Hospitals, ChristusMughuerza, and others contribute nearly 6% to 17% of revenue generated by the market.  Tier 2 companies operating in the market include Asian Heart Institute, Prince Court Medical Center, ShouldiceHospital, Gleneagles Hospital, ClemenceuMedical Centre, AnadoluMedical Centre, and others.