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Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

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92 ● <strong>Medical</strong> <strong>Tourism</strong> <strong>in</strong> Develop<strong>in</strong>g <strong>Countries</strong>La Pradera complex outside Havana merges a hospital and resort facilitieson a s<strong>in</strong>gle site, enabl<strong>in</strong>g ambulatory patients an easy hour at the beach. 107Tie-<strong>in</strong>s extend to airl<strong>in</strong>es. Many Asian airl<strong>in</strong>es offer frequent flyer milesto help patients return for follow-up visits. 108 The Bumrungrad is explor<strong>in</strong>gways of offer<strong>in</strong>g frequent flyer miles for their medical services. Its CEO saysthat they are try<strong>in</strong>g to figure out how to calculate miles: “If you have acholecystectomy, how many miles do you get?” 109The tie-<strong>in</strong> options available to <strong>in</strong>ternational patients are broad and suitedfor all tastes. If <strong>in</strong>ternational patients choose not to stay <strong>in</strong> the crowdedand congested capital city of Bangkok, the resorts on the coast sell beachholidays together with cosmetic surgery. Tourists can fly directly to Phuketand check <strong>in</strong> to the Phuket International Hospital that advertises “brightsun, blue sea, cosmetic surgery.” 110 Another Phuket hospital, the Bangkok-Phuket, established a company <strong>in</strong> 2003 called Phuket Health and TravelCompany <strong>in</strong> order to promote its medical tourism with the emphasis onthe tourism. 111 In Malaysia, hotels provide package visits that <strong>in</strong>clude medicalcheckups and referrals to hospitals. 112 One hotel even has its own cl<strong>in</strong>ic(Palace of the Golden Horses near Kuala Lumpur). The Sunway <strong>Medical</strong>Centre is associated with the Sunway Lagoon Resort Hotel and promotesmedical holidays. Tour operators arrange trips to popular resorts such asMalacca and Penang after cosmetic surgery. For those who are not <strong>in</strong>cl<strong>in</strong>edto taste exotic foods, hospitals such as the Bumrungrad have made it possibleto order room service from familiar establishments such as Starbucks,McDonald’s, and Au Bon Pa<strong>in</strong>. India and Thailand both offer packages forgett<strong>in</strong>g a fill<strong>in</strong>g, extraction, or root canal with a vacation.Why would the tourist want a tie-<strong>in</strong>? While it is not the reason peopletravel to one medical center over another, the tourist seeks out this exoticexperience as a positive externality associated with the medical procedure.Patients are targeted by promotions that <strong>in</strong>form them of the beautifulexperiences they can have at little cost—<strong>in</strong> other words, maximize theexperience while m<strong>in</strong>imiz<strong>in</strong>g the cost. The Bumrungrad Hospital websitesuggests that the money one saves on root canal work will more than payfor a luxury vacation. Even the Iranian Health M<strong>in</strong>ister, Masoud Pezeshkian,suggested the price differential between medical procedures <strong>in</strong> Iran and theUK could be applied towards tourism. 113While tourists view tie-<strong>in</strong>s as important components of their medicaltravel, suppliers of medical tourism view them as an important componentof their market<strong>in</strong>g. Tagg<strong>in</strong>g a vacation on to a medical service is viewed asa form of competition and hospitals are offer<strong>in</strong>g not only competitive pricesfor medical services, but also service usually associated with five-star luxuryhotels. They view tie-<strong>in</strong>s as a form of product differentiation, so the range

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