Medical services, technology and sustainable energy represent three of the major core growth areas in global industry today. The scope of this paper will concentrate on the first area of medical services and how they may be exploited economically through locality-based tourism. The scale of global health care market has reached 2 to 3 trillion U.S.
dollars in 2005, with Singapore, South Korea, India, Thailand and other Asian countries in direct competition for the overall market. (The Economist Intelligence, 2005)
Many experts consider that medical tourism will continue to remain a fast growing industry as patients travel from one country to another for high quality healthcare, providing many reasonable, cost-saving, or even prohibited alternatives. In 2009, according to The Medical Letter of the CDC & FDA, it was mentioned that the reputable accounting firm Deloitte &
Touche provided an estimate stating that as many as 3 million Americans could possibly travel abroad, spending $4.4 billion, and possibly reaching 23.5 million Americans spending
$79.5 billion U.S. Dollars by 2017. (Renee-Marie Stephano - Medical Tourism Association President)
1.1 Research Background
The global market in medical tourism will be worth $100bn in or before 2012, up from around $60bn in 2006 and $40bn in 2004. This analysis, compiled by global researcher Grail Research LLC, suggests that increasing medical tourism has been driven, at least in part, by emerging countries investing large sums of limited financial resources in their bid to capture a slice of this lucrative niche market. (Zarocostas, 2009)
With consequent social and economic development, medical tourism has increased the
number and variety of travel patterns that reflect a wider demand for tourism. Medical tourism is a fast growing industry that combines elements of both medical and tourism.
Over the past few years, vigorous development has taken place in many countries because of the economic importance attached to this service sector. International competition has driven medical tourism to become one of the fastest growing industries, as well as becoming a major new trend worldwide. People are now going overseas to seek medical treatments such as organ and marrow transplants, joint replacement surgery, cosmetic surgery, etc. A combination of many factors have driven the popularity of medical tourism, especially the high costs of health care in the United Stated, long waits for facility access, and the increased consistency in worldwide standards of healthcare, technological advancements, and equipment quality. (Tompkins, 2010)
Recently, a trend towards medical tourism has emerged whereby people in developed countries choose to forego the medical care offered in their own communities. These people decide to travel to under-developed areas of the world in order to receive comparable medical services at lower costs. Medical tourism has been becoming increasingly popular, and it is projected that as many as 750,000 Americans sought offshore medical care in 2007 alone. (Michael, 2007)
The medical tourism industry in Asia currently generates US $1.3 billion in revenue for certain national economies, and it is expected to grow to as much as US $4.4 billion by 2012, growing at a CAGR of 19%. Currently, the major countries competing for medical tourists in Asia are Thailand, Singapore, India and Malaysia. (Ivy, 2007) Among them, the Thai International Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand has been a leading advocate of medical service quality as a major form of national diplomacy. However, Thailand is not alone in using the lure of low-cost, high value health services to attract both economic and
diplomatic acceptance internationally.
Taiwan has made the effort recently to join the growing list of Asian health-care providers who wish to secure their portion of the medical tourism marketplace.
Taiwan is located as an important economic hub in Asia. Following the implementation of a national health insurance program, the on-going scheme for development of the proposed 2015 First-Term Plan for Economic Development in the New Century (Three-Year Plan for 2007~2009), the promotion of the medical services industry engaging international health tourism, and the extension of high-profile health tourism marketing to the international sector, have all served to promote medical tourists seeking diverse healthcare services in Taiwan. (ROC Executive Yuan, 2007) However, the current level of medical marketing has been insufficient for Taiwan’s desired growth level, and it has generally lacked a specific planning strategy of any sort. Therefore, the development of medical tourism has been limited to say the least, and it has been ill-accomplished to say the most.
1.2 Research Motivation
Medical tourism was originally introduced to Taiwan in 2005. It has provided potential recipients of this form of healthcare with such services as senior health checks, beauty SPA treatments and physical fitness resorts that mix a variety of medical practices (pulsating lights, electric wave pulls, traditional Chinese medical practices, etc.) with traditional tourism. Taiwan's medical tourism program allows those willing to pay with access to high-tech medical equipment. Taiwan's current level of medical care practice is said to be already sufficient enough to promote Taiwan's fledgling medical tourism industry internationally. (ROC Tourism Bureau, 2006)
However, the most pressing issues for the development of medical tourism are the non-existent strategies that may be used to develop it overall, and the inattention to
increased international competitiveness and market potential.
The demand for medical tourism services remains unclear in Taiwan; therefore, the vision of promoting medical tourism should be broader and not solely confined to the concept of making the domestic marketplace a primary source for consumers. In the Asian region, the development of medical tourism in many Asian countries has shown excellent results.
Participating countries have been able to exploit their own individual characteristics and develop brand identity. Taiwan should learn how to improve competitiveness and trumpet the relative advantages of its medical tourism industry in comparison with other Asian countries. This is the principal motivation for this research.
1.3 Research Purpose
The study focus on explore discernible factors concerning medical tourism development in Taiwan and to determine a viable strategy to meet growth projections at the present stage of expansion. Relative data is utilized to portray the current situation surrounding medical tourism development in Taiwan with that of other Asian countries. It is hoped that the research will serve to provide recommendations on the practical inclusion of relevant government departments in order to foster growth, potential sources of income, and raised awareness of a diplomatic profile for Taiwan. The research purpose as follows:
1. Evaluate the advantages in the development of medical tourism in Taiwan.
2. Provide recommendations to the government departments and relevant industries.