Medical Tourism: A Growing Market in Latin America
The proximity to a big-ticket market like the United States, cost-saving efforts and the high level of its experts and centers have made Latin America gain ground in the realm of medical tourism, a trendsetting move that has already put major travel destinations from the region on the map, such as Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Cuba.
According to the 2012-2013 World Travel Trend Report, Latin America has reeled in a large market share in the region as far as medical and esthetic treatments for tourists are concerned, rubbing elbows with Europe –home to well-established destinations like Germany, the Czech Republic and Hungary- and Asia, where South Korea and India are heavyweight nations in that field.
Even though available figures and facts on this particular market are scarce, estimates have it that the actual annual value is somewhere between 40 and 60 billion dollars, with yearly mean growth rates of 20 percent, according to the abovementioned report commissioned to IPK International by ITB Berlin.
Polls conducted in the sector indicate that approximately 3 to 4 percent of the population travel overseas in search of healthcare treatments. The pent-up demand could be even higher as over 50 percent of Europeans say that they sally forth abroad to receive medical treatments.
According to IPK’s World Travel Monitor, medical-oriented travel peaked 9.4 million in 2011, equal to 2.4 percent of all overseas movements out of Europe.
Over the past five years, health vacations for Europeans have been up 38 percent, while medical tourism has increased a whopping 24 percent, IPK indicates.
A survey also shows that 52 percent of Germans consider traveling abroad for medical treatments, including dental care and surgeries, because of lower costs and the unavailability of some specific treatments in their own country.
“The costs for healthcare treatments and medical insurances are becoming increasingly higher in many countries, and the number people on waiting lists could be countless. By traveling abroad, many patients save their pennies,” says Prof. Helmut Wachowiak, from the International University of Applied Sciences Bad Honnef (IUBH), near Bonn.
Mr. Honnef adds that the travel industry has discovered this new market niche and is enhancing its assortment of products and services in order to meet that demand.
As to Latin America, incomplete studies point out to several reasons for the medical tourism bonanza in the region, especially the fact that each country has taken on a particular field: Brazil deals with esthetic treatments; Mexico with Fallopian tube ligature; Costa Rica with buttock implants, and Colombia with chin and breast prostheses, while Cuba delivers state-of-the-art treatments in a number of specialties, in some cases with products churned out by the island nation’s own pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries.
