Travelsmart
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Medical tourism equals big bucks and is projected to grow at a staggering rate over the next 10 years, says a new report by VISA and Oxford Economics.
The report values the Medical Tourism industry at an incredible US$439 billion, with a projected growth rate of up to 25% year-over-year for the next 10 years. It estimated 3-4% of the world’s population travelling 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 $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. The United States leads in terms of market share of healthcare travel spending, but Thailand, Singapore and South Korea continue to thrive. Both VISA’s and MTI’s™ findings expect China to overtake the U.S. 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% of all international travel by 2025 to be older travellers. 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 1-3 times annually and that the number only continues to grow.
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