World medical tourism market is expected to reach $143.8 billion by 2022

A new report published by Big Market Research titled, “World Medical Tourism Market – Opportunities and Forecasts, 2014 – 2022,” projects that the world medical tourism market would reach $143.8 billion by 2022, with a CAGR of 15.7% from 2015 to 2022. Cancer treatment would continue to be the highest revenue-generating segment throughout the forecast period. North America and Asia-Pacific are estimated to remain principal revenue-generating regions and collectively accounted for more than 60% of the global medical tourism market in 2015, in terms of revenue.

The major factors that boost the market growth include, affordability, availability, and accessibility of superior quality healthcare services with healthy support and assistance from tourism departments & local governments. In addition, increasing incidence of cancer and other serious ailments is anticipated to drive the demand for healthcare services, which in turn is expected to drive the world medical tourism market. Limited coverage and lengthy partial reimbursement offered by insurance companies along with difficulties associated with cross border travel, such as language barriers, connectivity, documentation, and Visa approval issues, are likely to restrict the market growth.

Cancer treatment segment would continue to lead the market throughout the analysis period owing to increase with the number of cross-border travelers seeking better cancer treatment. In addition, cancer treatment is expensive and prolonged, hence better treatment available at affordable prices motivates several patients to choose medical tourism. North America and Asia-Pacific are the major hosts for travelers seeking cancer treatment. Neurological treatment emerged as the fastest growing segment with a CAGR of 16.2%, in terms of revenue, during the forecast period. Neurological treatment requires high level of expertise and limited personnel with requisite expertise. Increasing number of people are diagnosed with neurological ailments, owing to their stressful lifestyles. This is anticipated to increase the number of medical tourists travelling to destinations for better neurological treatment.

Geographically, North America and Asia-Pacific dominated, and collectively accounted for two-thirds of the overall medical tourism market in 2015. The growth of these regions is attributed to the availability of affordable medical treatments for several disease conditions in countries such as Mexico, Thailand, Malaysia, India and Singapore. However, Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing region followed by LAMEA, owing to the increasing treatment success rates, coupled with the affordable price range. Within Asia-Pacific medical tourism market, India and Malaysia are few of the fastest growing countries.

Increase in reach of internet and various medical tourism associations such as Europe Medical Tourism Alliance (EuMTA) & Medical Tourism Association (MTA) along with medical travel agencies in the last decade, helped to raise awareness about the treatment options beyond the home country. Furthermore, several medical travel facilitators have emerged, such as Beijing Saint Lucia Consulting Ltd, Kangtai Health Network, Ryavo Healthcare, Medigo, PlacidWay, and government tourist associations of respective countries. These agencies provide assistance ranging from information about available treatments and their quality in various destinations to travel arrangements, accommodation, and post-treatment recovery.

Key findings of the study:

In 2015, cancer treatment segment generated the highest revenue, accounting about one-third of the overall market revenue and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 16.0% during the forecast period.
Neurological treatment segment is expected to grow at an above-average CAGR of 16.2%, owing to increased number of skilled medical personnel.
North America accounted for about one-third of the global medical tourism in 2015. Mexico occupies the major market share within North America followed by the U.S.

The Asia-Pacific region is anticipated to be the fastest growing medical tourism market during the analysis period, followed by LAMEA region.
Thailand, Singapore, and India are the major shareholders in Asia-Pacific with a combined share of more than three fourth of the medical tourism market in the region.

Major market players have established overseas promotional offices to attract more medical tourists. Moreover, respective tourism departments promote their countries as center of excellence in specific healthcare services. Such strategic measures aid in increasing the number of medical tourists choosing to avail their healthcare services. Key service providers include Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited, Fortis Healthcare Ltd., Asian Heart Institute and Research Centre Private Limited, KPJ Healthcare Berhad, Barbados Fertility Centre, NTT Medical Center Tokyo, Seoul National University Hospital, UZ Leuven (University Hospitals Leuven), Infectious Diseases Partners Pte. Ltd., Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital, Barbados Fertility Centre, Prince Court Medical Centre, and Samitivej Public Company Limited.