Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

Introduction to Medical Tourism ● 19Table 1.2 Indicators of the tourist and health sectorsCountryTravel andTourism as% of GDP2004Public HealthExpendituresas % of GDPPrivate HealthExpendituresas % of GDPHealthExpenditurePer Person(PPP)2002(US$)Argentina 6.8 4.5 4.4 956Chile 5.7 2.6 3.2 642Costa Rica 12.5 6.1 3.2 743Cuba 13.7 6.5 1.0 236India 4.9 1.3 4.8 96Jordan 17.6 4.3 5.0 418Malaysia 14.7 2.0 1.8 349Philippines 7.4 1.1 1.8 153S. Africa 7.4 3.5 5.2 689Thailand 12.2 3.1 1.3 321Source: World Travel and Tourism Council, Travel and Tourism—Forging Ahead, Country League Tables, The2004 Travel and Tourism Economic Research, table 46; UNDP, Human Development Report 2005, NewYork: UNDP, 2005, table 6.where the private sector expenditure exceeds 5 percent. Total health sectorexpenditures per head at PPP are also presented in table 1.2. It is clear thatthe less developed among the group, namely, India, followed by thePhilippines and Cuba, enjoy the lowest expenditure. For purposes of comparison,other countries have the following expenditure: United States—$5,274, Canada—$2,931, Japan—$2,133, and the UK—$2,160.A comparison of the rate of economic growth in the countries understudy (table 1.1) and the relative size of the tourism and medical sectors(table 1.2) shows a difference between health care and tourism. Indeed, thecountries with the highest rates of growth have the greatest health expenditures,but their TTI is not necessarily the highest. The same is true whencomparing levels of development to the tourism/medical industries.