ITIC APAC 2024 | Travelling for treatment in APAC

The ITIJ team share their reports from ITIC APAC 2024 in Bangkok (16–18 June). Read all reports

Lily Chen, Founder and Managing Director of Essential Benefit Solutions Co, began her presentation with a snapshot of the global medical tourism market. In 2019, it was valued at US$105 billion, but crashed 34% to US$71 billion in 2020 due to the complexities of travel during the pandemic. However, it has since been growing 15% a year, and in 2023 it exceeded 2019 levels.

Chen said that in 2019 more than one million Chinese nationals travelled abroad for health screening and medical check-ups, with Japan, South Korea, and Thailand being popular destinations. She said that the global medical tourism market for advanced treatment and surgeries is expected to reach $54.9 billion by 2027. Chinese patients were a significant contributor, and those seeking treatments such as robotic surgery, proton therapy, and stem cell therapy had increased by 22.5% in 2022, compared with 2021.

Chen said that growth in seeking treatment abroad had been driven by increased awareness of the importance of preventative healthcare among the Chinese population. She said there is also a perception that healthcare services abroad are of higher quality and more advanced.

Privacy was cited as another issue, with Chinese patients feeling more comfortable undergoing sensitive tests abroad. The increasing affluence of the Chinese middle class was also a contributing factor.

Figures given revealed that in 2022, over 60,000 Chinese patients travelled overseas for cancer treatment, with popular destinations being the US, Germany, and Singapore.

China was also witnessing a rising number of women travelling overseas to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, and even as far afield as the US, for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) and egg freezing. Chen said that the reason for this was relaxation of China’s family-planning policy, and long waiting times.

Barry Iskandar Lim, Vice President, Head of Consulting, at Frost & Sullivan, then spoke about cross-border care in Asia Pacific (APAC).

Lim opened by saying that the APAC region has emerged as a sought-after global hub for medical tourism, offering patients high-quality healthcare services at competitive prices.

He said that the top medical tourism markets in APAC have their own particular strengths. Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan are popular for essential medical treatments, while Thailand and South Korea attracted those seeking elective treatments.

Lim said that medical tourists in APAC could benefit from significant cost savings and reduced waiting times for popular procedures. In the region, these included cardiac procedures such as bypass surgery and angioplasty, where specialised hospitals offer world-class expertise at a fraction of Western prices.

He added that dental care is one of the biggest drivers of outbound travel due to the high costs in the home country and poor access to dental insurance. Medical tourists could benefit from significant savings on procedures like dental implants, crowns, and orthodontic treatments in APAC destinations. However, Lim stressed that regulations can both promote medical travel through streamlined processes and incentives, and hinder it through lack of data-sharing standards, restrictive cross-border insurance coverage, and licensing. He added that balanced regulatory frameworks can enhance access and maintain high standards of care.

Looking forward, Lim closed by saying that after the downturn due to Covid-19 restrictions, 2024 is the year of full recovery. He said that the APAC outlook is good, projecting a compound annual growth rate of 15.34% between 2024 and 2029.

Dr Jacob Thomas, Senior Director and Head of APAC Region at Vmarsh Healthcare, focused his presentation on Malaysian healthcare.

Dr Thomas opened with a quick overview of health tourism trends, noting that when Asia began emerging as a medical tourism destination, Thailand, Singapore, India and Malaysia quickly gained recognition. However, he said, other nations such as China, the Philippines, Costa Rica, and South Africa have now entered the market, leading him to assert that “the future of medical tourism is global healthcare”.

He went on to say that current medical tourism drivers were cost savings, inaccessibility, delays and long waiting times in the UK, Canada, and Hong Kong.

There were also demographic factors, such as an ageing population and increased life expectancy, that are putting a significant strain on health systems, as is the case in the Middle East. He added that medical tourists travelling for better-quality care than they can get in their home country were coming from Indonesia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Nigeria. Travelling for specialty treatments was also common and included fertility and IVF procedures, liver and kidney transplants, and neurosurgery.

Dr Thomas stressed that a speedy response time to customer enquiries was important and should normally be no more than two days. The reply should include materials and information about hospitals or procedures to help customers quickly confirm treatment options.

He added that common questions included ‘Is your country safe?’, ‘Is healthcare in your hospital accredited?’, and ‘Are your consultants trained locally or in Western countries?’

He closed by saying that Malaysia was dedicated to providing the best healthcare travel experience with a focus on quality, affordability, accessibility, ease of communication and quality care end-to-end.