© Copyright 2020 World Travel & Tourism Council. All rights reserved.

Medical tourism,
an opportunity for growth
Nejc Jus
Economic Research Manager
World Travel & Tourism Council

wttc.org @wttc @wtandtc @wttc @wttc

 Membership Snapshot
200+ Members (CEOs and Chairs) from all industries and geographies in Travel & Tourism
AIRLINES & TRAVEL AGENCIES & DESTINATIONS &
HOTELS/LODGING CRUISE TECHNOLOGY OTHER
AIRPORTS TOUR OPERATORS ASSOCIATIONS

EUROPE
MID EAST
AFRICA

AMERICAS

APAC

01/10/2020 2
 We conducted one-to-one interviews with 80%
of our Members and identified the top

3 Strategic Priorities

Security & Travel Crisis Preparedness, Sustainable

Facilitation Management & Growth
Recovery

01/10/2020 3
 For 30 years we have been
quantifying the impact of
Travel & Tourism in 185
countries in our annual
Economic Impact
Research

CITY TRAVEL & TOURISM TRAVEL & TOURISM TRAVEL & TOURISM
ECONOMIC IMPACT SECTOR BENCHMARKING FOCUS RESEARCH
01/10/2020 4
 Global 2.5 %
Global GDP
3.5 %
Travel & Tourism
10.3 %
Travel & Tourism total
Performance growth GDP growth contribution to global GDP

Travel & Tourism Economic

Impact 2020 (2019 Figures)
330 mn 1/10 1/4
Jobs supported Jobs supported of all new jobs created
by Travel & Tourism by Travel & Tourism came from Travel & Tourism

28.7 % 71.3 % 21.4 % 78.6 %

International vs Domestic Business vs Leisure
Spend Spend Spend Spend

01/10/2020 Source: WTTC EIR 2019 Data 5

 Global Recovery Scenarios 2020
& Economic Impact from COVID-19
BASELINE SCENARIO DOWNSIDE SCENARIO

Travel & Tourism Jobs: Travel & Tourism Jobs:

121.1 MILLION job losses ↓37% 197.5 MILLION job losses ↓60%
Travel & Tourism GDP: Travel & Tourism GDP:
$3,435 BILLION loss ↓39% $5,543 BILLION loss ↓62%
Global Visitor Arrivals: Global Visitor Arrivals:
International ↓53% Domestic ↓34% International ↓73% Domestic ↓64%
01/10/2020 6
 WTTC Research
Reports
2019/2020
• T&T economic impact of countries
• T&T economic impact of cities
• Economic impact of medical tourism
• Destination 2030
• Mobile payments
• T&T - driving women’s success
• Megatrends & implications for T&T
• T&T - generating jobs for youth
• Benchmarking report
• Economic impact of wildlife tourism
• Best practices

01/10/2020 7
 Why research medical tourism?

• A growing number of countries have • To understand the size of the sub-sector

recognised the opportunities of medical across the world
tourism as a catalyst for socio-economic
• To showcase the best policies/initiatives from
development
countries supporting the development of the
• Medical tourism supports: sub-sector
- Quality education
- Highly skilled workers
- Favourable visa policies
- Accessible and well-developed
infrastructure
- Promotion of a country’s attractiveness

01/10/2020 8
 Health tourism
spectrum
Stem-cell tourism
Transplant tourism
Abortion tourism
Cosmetic surgery

Fertility tourism

Medical tourism Health tourism

Wellness tourism

Dental tourism

Spa tourism

Illness Health Wellness

Curative Preventative Promotive

Source: Research for TRAN Committee – Health tourism in the EU: a
01/10/2020 general investigation, 2017 and Hall, 2011 9
 Approach
• Concepts and definitions of health tourism vary
across countries
• We need definition that is aligned and can
compare data across countries
• Medical tourism, referred to as ‘health-related
personal travel’ by the International Monetary
Fund (IMF), is defined as the products and
services bought by people who travel abroad
primarily for medical and health-related reasons –
includes spending on food, accommodation &
local transport
01/10/2020
• Data on inbound and/or outbound medical
tourism spending is available for 115 countries
• Inbound medical tourism spending data is
available for ten of the G20 economies –
Brazil, Canada, France, India, Italy, South
Korea, Mexico, Turkey, UK and USA
• Our research has focussed solely on
international medical tourism
10
 Medical tourism Where do international medical
across the world tourists spend the most?
Inbound medical tourism spending, 2017, % of world's total

US$ bn Other
19%
12

10

S. Korea United States

8 4% 36%
Hungary
4%
6
UK
4 4%
Costa Rica
4%
2
Jordan
4% France
0
Thailand 7%
2011
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010

2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017

5% Belgium Turkey
6% 7%
Source : Oxford Economics/Haver Analytics, IMF
01/10/2020 11
 Top 15 largest countries
Inbound medical tourism spending in 2017

4,0 14%

3,5 12% 12%

3,0 11%
10%
2,5
US$ billion

8%
2,0 7%
6%
1,5 5%
4% 4%
1,0 3% 3%
0,5 2% 2% 2%
1% 2% 1%
1% 1% 1%
0,0 0%

Inbound medical tourism spending (US$ bn) Inbound medical tourism spending as a share of total inbound travel spending (%)

01/10/2020 Source : Oxford Economics, IMF 12

 Top 15 largest countries
Outbound medical tourism spending in 2017*

2,5 45%

40% 40%
2,0 35%
30%
US$ billion

1,5
25%
21% 20%
1,0
15% 15%
13% 14% 14%
0,5 10%
5%
4% 3%
2% 1% 1% 2% 2%
0,0 0,3% 0,4% 0%

Outbound medical tourism (US$ bn) Outbound medical tourism spending as a share of total outbound travel spending (%)

Source : Oxford Economics, IMF

01/10/2020 13
*Data for Kuwait, the Netherlands and Canada is from 2015
 Policies supporting medical tourism

As destinations work towards developing their medical tourism sub-sector, the

following elements should be considered as governments develop their strategies
and policies:
• Establishing smart regulation and • Defining the skills gap and developing
recognised accreditation/ training to enhance the talent
certification of medical practitioners • Designing and implementing targeted
and facilities marketing strategies
• Developing enabling visa facilitation • Creating the financial incentives to
policies which support the attract investment into the sub-sector
development of this sub-sector

01/10/2020 14
 Concluding remarks
• Medical tourism has become an important niche
market, supported by government policies and
private sector initiatives

• WTTC expects that with the right policies, support

and regulation, medical tourism will continue to
grow across developed and emerging economies

• Potential to support quality education, highly

skilled workers, promotion of a country’s
attractiveness

• A catalyst for social and economic development

01/10/2020 15
 © Copyright 2020 World Travel & Tourism Council. All rights reserved.

Thank you
Nejc Jus
Economic Research Manager
World Travel & Tourism Council

nejc.jus@wttc.org

wttc.org @wttc @wtandtc @wttc @wttc