Health tourism on the rise? Evidence from the Balance of Payments Statistics

Abstract

The study assesses the presence and magnitude of global trends in health tourism using health-related travel (HRT) spending reported in the International Monetary Fund's Balance of Payments Statistics database. Linear regression and quantile regression are applied to estimate secular trends of the import and export of HRT based on a sample of countries from 2003 to 2009. The results show that from 2003 to 2009 the import and export of health tourism rose among countries with a high volume of such activities (accounting for the upper 40% of the countries), but not among those with a low volume. The uneven growth in health tourism has generated greater contrast between countries with high and low volumes of health tourism activities. However, the growth in the total import of health tourism did not outpace the population growth, implying that in general the population's tendency to engage in health tourism remained static.

Trends and structural shifts in health tourism: Evidence from seasonal time-series data on health-related travel spending by Canada during 1970–2010

“…A recent study, however, shows that the growth in health tourism in the last decade is not a universal phenomenon but rather uneven across countries with the volume of health tourism activities becoming more polarized between the high-and the low-usage countries (Loh, 2014). Consequently, a better understanding of what the determinants of health tourism are is needed.…”

Reducing the scale? From global images to border crossings in medical tourism

“…Competition discourages accurate data, whether on numbers, market shares, or revenue. For a few countries in the Global South, medical travel ('health service exports') grew substantially from 1997 to 2010, but that growth was otherwise elusive (Lautier 2014;Loh 2014). Moreover, the objectives and outcomes of medical travel, especially in low and middle-income countries, remain 'largely anecdotal rather than statistical' (Chen and Flood 2013: 296).…”

Health Tourism Market in Poland and Croatia – Financial Effects and Potentials

“…However, no unequivocal research on the financial effects of health tourism was found, and the review of previous literature indicates that there are limited related studies. In other words, only a few researchers have focused on the financial effects and expenditure of health tourism (Johnson et al 2015, Loh 2014Loh 2015, Ridderstaat et al 2018, Hodžić and Paleka 2018.…”