What does "Medical Tourism" mean

In recent years, Medical Tourism has received extensive attention. During the travel process, some medical care and health preservation projects are also carried out to achieve a more comfortable experience process. So, what exactly is the concept of Medical Tourism and what projects does it include? Let's take a detailed look together below.

What is Medical Tourism

As early as the 1980s, similar trips that combined tourism and medical care had already emerged in European and American countries. However, the scope only involves plastic surgery and organ switching surgeries, etc. The concept of "Medical Tourism" is still rather vague to the general public. Until 1997, Tourism products with tourism as the main focus and medical care as the secondary were diverse. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) established a relatively "clear" definition for this: When Tourism encompasses three major elements: Medical care, disease and health, and rehabilitation and convalescence, it can be called Medical Tourism.

In actual operation, the "interpretations" of the East and the West each have their own merits. European and American countries place greater emphasis on treatment and have introduced plastic surgery, more complex organ surgeries, and even psychological repair programs. As for the Asia-Pacific countries, there are also plastic surgeries and organ surgeries, but in recent years, they have placed more emphasis on physical examinations and health care items, highlighting health preservation and conditioning. As the medical treatment only takes up one or half a day of the journey and is mostly independent travel with low charges, it naturally attracts a group of citizens from high-consumption countries that value the quality of life.