Clearly people are willing to travel to receive medical care. If they were not, the industry would not be expanding. The question is, just how far will they travel? To answer that question, scholars have studied the role distance plays in medical tourism. Vega found that it was important, as elderly and ill patients traveled to Mexico from the United States and Canada, although they preferred to buy health-care services close to the border. Houyuan found that distance is relevant in China as most patients come from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau (because of their location, Fujian and Guangdong have more foreign patients than Beijing and Shanghai). Gupta, Goldar, and Mitra also found proximity to be an important issue for patients coming to India from neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Mauritius, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
Evidence from numerous countries supports the contention that foreign patients are not indifferent to the travel time they spend seeking care (the role of distance is especially large in border medicine but, for reasons explained above, such medical tourism is not discussed here). Western expatriates across Southeast Asia traditionally opted to be treated in Thailand because it is closer than their home countries. Patients come to India for treatment from the Gulf States as well as neighboring countries (each year, some 50,000 Bangladeshis come to India for specialized treatment). Chile, with its sophisticated health-care system, attracts patients from Ecuador and Peru. Americans go to Mexico for routine checkups and Italians go to Romania for dental work.
Costa Rica has an advantage for American tourists as it does not require a long flight. It is a few hours away from the United States and enables a patient to leave home in the morning and be a postoperative that same day. For years, Americans have been buying medicine in Canada and Mexico. Jordan is the accepted medical center of the Arab world, although it is likely to be superseded in the next decade by Dubai’s Healthcare City, which aims to attract “the 1.6 billion inhabitants covering the Middle East to the Subcontinent, North Africa to the Caspian region.” South to south export of health services is rising in the Western Hemisphere, as Latin American and Caribbean residents travel across borders to partake of each other’s health-care systems.
As a result of the distance factor in medical tourism, the founder of Escorts Heart Institute in India, Naresh Trehan is considering building a large health-care complex in the Bahamas modeled on the Medicity under construction in India. He wants to “deliver better medical care than America at half the price and half an hour away." While geographical proximity is important in health service trade, distance is not a deal breaker. The fact that long-haul medical tourism is growing indicates that international patients are willing to forgo a nearby location for one that, while distant, is preferable according to other criteria.
The advent of low air fares and frequent flyer miles have made the obstacle of distance easier to overcome. As a result, Thailand continues to be the favorite destination of Americans; India’s Escorts Heart Institute claims 40 percent of its foreign patients come from the United States, UK, Canada, Europe, and Africa; and the Apollo Hospital Group says much of its foreign demand comes from the Middle East and Africa. In these cases, it is likely that there is a direct relationship between the time you spend getting to a destination and the rewards you expect in return. Rewards take the form of successful surgery, exceptional wellness experience, an exotic vacation, et cetera.
Demand for Medical Tourism in One Particular Country
