Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

Introduction to Medical Tourism ● 9blueprint for how to go about setting up a medical/tourism package.Rather, it is about medicine and health care insofar as they are related toeconomic growth. The broad question posed in this research is how toencourage economic growth and development in less developed countries(LDCs). In other words, the book is about medical tourism as a strategy foreconomic growth, focusing on how revenue from international patients translatesinto output, jobs, income, et cetera. The book is about the revenuereaped by medical and tourist businesses in Thailand, for example, and howit permeates throughout the Thai economy, not about the American healthcarecrisis or where obese Germans can go to shed their pounds. The goalof this study is to explain, illustrate, and offer suggestions on the relationshipbetween medical tourism and economic development in the twentyfirstcentury.This book is organized as follows. Chapter 1 begins with a broad introductionto medical tourism. The conceptual definitions, parameters of thestudy, and introductory global trends set the stage for subsequent chapters.Also, the ten destination countries selected for study are introduced. Inchapter 2, the theory that links international trade in medical and touristservices to economic growth is explored. Given the nature of trade in medicalservices, dependency issues raised by social scientists during the 1960sand 1970s are revisited. It is argued that the sale of high-tech medical servicesto foreigners is different from the export of a cash crop such as peanutsand thus will not create the dependency associated with cash crops. Thedemand for medical tourism is explored in chapter 3, where an analysis ofwho travels and why is offered. The determinants of demand for medicaltourism in general are compared to the determinants of demand for anyparticular location. Supply of medical tourism, the other side of the market,is discussed in chapter 4. The role of the public and private sectors is discussed,and the crucial importance of cooperation between them is highlighted.This necessary cooperation is analyzed with an eye on the best wayto ensure that medical tourism takes off on a solid growth path. The privateand public sectors in developing countries are then placed into the globalcontext since they both function within a framework set by internationalorganizations and both tap foreign, physical, and human resources that aregoverned by international laws and regulations. Finally, the nature andrationale of medical tourism’s tie-ins to the tourist industry are described.Chapter 5 begins by asking why Malaysia attracts medical tourists whileMauritania does not. In response, the advantages that selected destinationcountries face when promoting medical tourism are discussed (including lowcosts of services, abundant human capital, a developed infrastructure, a clearand fair legal system, a market economy, etc.). It is in this chapter that the