Global Medical Tourism Market to Reach €180 Billion Value by 2025
A recent study has shown that global medical tourism is expected to grow to be worth over €180 billion by 2025.
According to the study, such an increase can be reached in the next three years provided that developing healthcare markets pick up patients from countries that are wealthy, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
The term medical tourism refers to people who travel abroad in order to obtain medical treatment. In the past, it usually referred to individuals who travelled from less developed countries to highly developed countries to receive treatment that was unavailable at home.
However, in recent years, medical tourism refers to people from developed countries travelling to developing countries in order to receive medical treatments for lower prices.
Data shows that citizens of the United Kingdom and the United States of America have been mainly reaching developing countries to receive medical treatments. This means that Britons, as well as Americans, are turning to health tourism.
According to Consultancy-me, the medical tourism market was valued at €105 billion in 2019. Nonetheless, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions that were imposed all over the world to halt its spread, its value fell to €71 billion in 2020.
While 2020 registered the lowest value, data show that the value of the medical tourism market started to increase in 2021.
In 2021, the medical tourism market was valued at €82 billion, whereas this year, it has been foreseen that it will reach the value of €97 billion.
As for 2023, 2024, and 2025, data show that the value of the medical tourism market will increase significantly. It has been estimated that in 2023 the medical tourism market will be valued at €120 billion, with over 27 million people wanting to travel abroad for medical treatment.
As for 2024, it is anticipated that the medical tourism market will be valued at €148 billion, and in 2025 it is expected to be valued at €182 billion.
The same source notes that while health tourism is oftentimes dominated by cosmetic surgery, it increasingly includes critical care treatments too. It revealed that last year, neurology, cardiovascular and oncology treatments accounted for the major part of medical tourism.
Even though the number of patients receiving these treatments was lower compared to other ones, they generated more revenues due to their higher costs. In 2021, the average cost for neurology was €13,559; for cardiovascular treatments, it was €17,597; and for oncology treatments, it was €16,581.
