Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

14 ● Medical Tourism in Developing Countriesthe study as our focus is on medical tourism as a development strategyfor LDCs.Moreover, some developing countries that offer medical tourism serviceshave not been included in this study. Indonesia, for example, was omittedbecause its services are largely limited to traditional medicine and the numberof foreign patients is tiny. China, despite having come a long way fromits barefoot-doctor days and despite its efforts to promote export of healthservices, continues to have very few medical service exports. 61 Chinese traditionalmedicine, including acupuncture, is demanded across the world,but it is the large Chinese diaspora that has been quick to offer such services.Indeed, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines, all countries understudy, have successfully merged Chinese practices (together with their owntraditional medicine) into the export of high-tech health services. In theMiddle East, both Bahrain and Dubai are actively promoting medical tourismin an effort to establish themselves as the centers of health care in theregion. Dubai expects to build the world’s largest medical establishment (solarge that it is called a city: Dubai Healthcare City) by 2010. 62 However, atthe time of writing it is still many years away from completion, so Jordanis the Middle East destination included in the study because of its longstandingmedical tourism tradition.The countries that have been selected for this study span the continents—fourare in Asia, four in Latin America, one in Africa, and one inthe Middle East. These countries share the following characteristics: theirgovernments are actively promoting medical tourism, they have a privatesector with the capacity and incentive to invest in medical tourism, theyhave a domestic source of human capital, their political and economicinstitutions are developed, and they have an extensive infrastructure. Thesecountries are introduced below.Economic Indicators in Selected Destination CountriesThe World Bank ranks countries by their gross national income (GNI) percapita in order to facilitate classifications. In 2004, the following incomecategories were constructed: LIC (low-income countries) have $825 or less,LMC (lower-middle countries) have $826–3,255, UMI (upper-middleincome) $3,256–10,065, and HI (high income) have over $10,066. Thecountries under study were placed into these categories and, as evident fromtable 1.1, all countries are middle income (five are in the UMI categoryand four in the LMC group) with one exception. Only India is ranked asan LMC. However, the difference between India and other countries (suchas Jordan and the Philippines) is less pronounced when we look at the GNI