on approval of the strategic plan to develop Thailand as a “Medical Hub of Asia”, the plan aims to promote related sectors consist of medical care services, health promotion tourism, and Thai herbal & health products. The core business in the medical care services is the private hospitals and the number is now up to 256 private hospitals all over the country. In addition, there is more than a hundred of private hospitals be able to accommodate the foreign customers. Since 2002 the number of foreign customers in Thailand is high and has risen every year. There were 1.42 million foreign customers using medical care services in Thailand and created revenue up to 37,300 million Baht particularly in 2007. The medical care services distribute revenue to other linkage industries, for example, pharmaceutical, medical equipment, medial tourism, hotels, restaurants, etc.; consequently, the growth bring about job creation and economic expansion overall. Accordingly, the importance of those businesses to tourism industry caused Tourism Authority of Thailand to study “the Structure of Business Investment in the Medical Tourism Industry” related to the major industry : private hospitals and its linkage industries in order to obtain useful data to further develop strategies and policies to promote and bolster the medical tourism industry. Purposes of the Study
Increase the competitiveness of the entrepreneurs and investors of both large-sized enterprises and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Support medical tourism-linkage industries.
Promote investment in the tourism industry.
Reduce investment problems and obstacles in dealing with the government sector.
Scope of the Study
Target group : The target of this study can be divided into 3 groups as follows; Major industry entrepreneurs: The names of the private hospitals with the potential to accommodate foreign tourists or customers were sorted out from the official national private hospital list of Therapeutic Disease Division, Department of Health Support Services, Ministry of Public Health (Data on September 2008). It is found that there are 132 private hospitals nationwide which are eligible for this study.
Linkage industry entrepreneurs: 37 linkage industry entrepreneurs with the potential to accommodate foreign tourists or customers were chosen by purposive sampling so as to be the sample of each industry.
Experts and policymakers: 12 medical tourism public organizations and associations were chosen.
Major competing countries: The potential competing countries in the same region with the goal to promote their medical tourism and to attract foreigners to use medical care services within their countries, namely, Singapore, Malaysia, India, and South Korea were chosen.
Target areas: In this study, the target areas are divided into 3 areas by the potential in terms of tourism and medical care services, and in each area, there are potential private hospitals as follows; High Potential Tourism Provinces : 92 Potential private hospitals.
Medium Potential Tourism Provinces : 29 Potential private hospitals
Border Provinces : 11 Potential private hospitals
Terms: Medical Tourism refers to the traveling with the objective to obtain medical care services in standard hospitals or medical centers. The activities include treatments, health prevention and health rehabilitation, for example, check-up, medical treatments, dentistry, cosmetics surgery, transsexual surgery, etc. This study disregards holistic health or health promotion tourism Potential private hospital refers to the hospital which fulfils the following criteria:
Provides medical care services with modern medical equipment and technology by specialist doctors, convenient and quick services with hospitality, and has the potential to support foreigners. There should be health treatments services, e.g. Medical Check up
Medical Treatments
Dental Treatment
Lasik
Cosmetic Surgery / Plastic Surgery
Physical Therapy
Target foreigners including; Leisure Tourists
Medical tourists who intend to use medical care services, excluding wellness tourists who intend to use healthy services, e.g. spas, Thai massage and etc.
Expatriates
Has the potential to accommodate foreign tourists with supporting facilities and personnel, such as Having personnel to take care of foreigners, e.g. interpreters and the foreign client care staff, etc.
Having facilities for foreigners, e.g., rooms, international foods, cable TV, magazines, and etc.
Private hospitals can be divided into 3 sizes as follows;
A small sized hospital refers to the hospital with 31-50 beds.
A medium sized hospital refers to the hospital with 51-150 beds.
A large sized hospital refers to the hospital with more than 150 beds.
High Potential Tourism Provinces refers to a major tourism destination with the high potential to provide tourism and medical care services, including the following provinces.
Bangkok Metropolitan Area and its vicinity
Central Region Hua Hin – Cha-am Districts (Prachuapkhirikhan and Phetchaburi)
South Region Phuket and Koh Samui (Suratthani)
North East Region Udonthani
North Region Chiang Mai
East Region Pattaya (Chonburi)
Medium Potential Tourism Provinces refers to a minor tourism destination with the moderate potential to provide tourism and medical care services, including the following provinces.
Central Region Ayutthaya, Kanchanaburi, Lopburi, and Ratchaburi
South Region Songkhla (Hatyai), Trang, Krabi, Nakhonsithammarat,Ranong and Chumphon
North East Region Nakhonratchasima, Khon Kaen and Loei
North Region Nakhonsawan, Phitsanulok, Maehongson and Sukhothai
East Region Rayong and Chanthaburi
Border Tourism Provinces refers to a tourism destination or area connected to the neighboring countries which has the moderate potential to provide tourism and medical care services, including the following provinces.
Chiang Rai
Tak
Mukdahan
Nong Khai
Ubonratchathani
Nakhonpanom
Sakaeo
Trat
Yala (Betong)
Cheap price (not expensive) means having lower medical costs with the same medical service provided by other countries. Worth money means the satisfaction obtained after using services. Although the expense is higher, the consumer is willing to pay and feel worth money with reasonable price. Business partnerrefers to an organization or a company which has some degree of involvement with one another, for example, being suppliers, customers, and distributors, etc. This includes the businesses linkage to raw materials, intermediate goods, final goods, and services. The business which can share their customers with each other is also included. Generally, business partners usually support each other’s business operation. Distributor refers to a general person, a legal person, or an organization which is officially assigned as a product and/or service distributor of a particular company or organization. 1.) Situation of Global Medical Tourism Medical tourism gains high popularity from tourists around the globe. Regarding the data provided by “Bworldonline” and “ITRI Industrial Economics & Knowledge Center, IEK”, it is stated that in 2005 there were 19 million medical tourists worldwide, generating revenue of up to 20,000 million US dollars in total. It is also projected that this industry would be larger, double in size in fact, equivalent to 40 million medical tourists worldwide or revenue of 40,000 million US dollars in 2010. There are several important factors facilitating the growth of medical tourism industry as follows; First, most people of developed countries, especially the US, are not in the public health insurance system. Regarding the report of the US Census Bureau conducted during 2007-2008, it is found that 86.7 million Americans or 29% of all do not have any health insurance. Second, the US health service costs tend to continuously rise, resulting in an increase in medical costs. Currently, the US has the world’s highest medical costs. Third, the medical care services in developed countries, e.g. the US, Canada, England, Sweden, Italy, etc. usually have a long waiting list, so it takes very long time to access the services in those countries. Fourth, the medical costs in developing countries and Asian countries are significantly cheaper than the costs in the US and the European countries. Fifth, currently, the quality of medical care services in developing countries and Asian countries is equivalent or even higher than the one of developed countries. Sixth, due to the cut off the rising medical costs of some large sized companies in the US, they tend to prefer medical outsourcing by letting their staff get medical treatments abroad with lower medical costs. Major Market Leading Countries Currently, Asia is considered as the world’s highest potential medical tourism continent and generates revenue of up to 3.4 billion US dollars from foreigners’ expenses, or equivalent to 12.7% of the global market, which is estimated to be 26.77 billion US dollars in total. In fact, the growth of medical tourism in Asia is projected to grow at a CAGR of 17.6% during 2007-2012.
www.tourisminvest.tat.or.th(Source)
Medical Tourism Network
Tags: medical care services, medical hub, sector scope, small and medium enterprises, tourism authority of thailand