Added Title

DLSU-AKI Working Paper Series 2010-001

College

School of Economics

Department/Unit

Economics

Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

5-2010

Abstract

Thanks to rapidly improving technology and medical practice standards, medical travel is able to combine the allure of exotic tourist destinations with the promise of affordable and high-quality health care as well as alternatives to western medical knowledge and procedures (such as traditional medicine including yoga, homeopathy, and "Chinese medicine"). Rising medical costs and lengthening queues for medical procedures in the Western world also contribute to making medical services in countries like India, the Philippines and Thailand more than acceptable substitutes to those offered in their developed country counterparts.

Moreover, the literature on the industry indicate that other than the significant price differences of medical services, factors like “favorable foreign currency exchange rates [in developing economies], rapidly improving technology and medical practice standards” (Garcia & Besinga, 2006) together with the “tourism” element seemingly compensate for the lack of insurance portability in developing countries. Accordingly, medical travel is among the fastest growing sectors, particularly in Asian economies, expanding at an estimated rate of 20 percent annually and should be worth about US$4 billion by 2012 (Yap, Chen & Nones, n.d.).

Accordingly, medical tourism is becoming a significant source of growth for Asian economies such as India, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. This paper discusses the evolution of the medical travel industry and highlights the impact of the sector on the domestic economy (Part I). It tackles the various theories involved in the development of medical tourism infrastructure (Part II). The document also identifies the sector’s strengths, obstacles, and prospects (Part III). The last section, Part IV, summarizes the paper by analyzing the health tourism sector as a city innovation.

html

Disciplines

Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration | Tourism

Keywords

Medical Tourism; Tourism; City Innovation; Philippines

Upload File

wf_yes

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.