Hoping to improve on the increasing number of medical tourists, Baja has appointed Dr. Jorge Tagle as the first director of the department of medical tourism.
The region gets the majority of medical tourists from the USA and the rest from Canada. Most go to border cities like Tijuana and Mexicali (the state capital). The new department seeks to increase the number of patients’ and their relatives’ staying in local cities while receiving treatment.
The department of medical tourism seeks to unify efforts by public and private hospitals, hotels, restaurants, government agencies and related businesses and entities to attract patients, rather than them wasting money and energy competing with each other.

Dr. Alberto Aceves, a leading bariatric surgeon in Mexico, is optimistic, "We are hoping for government health agencies to regulate and provide proper validation and certification for every service related to medical tourism, so creating a trustworthy atmosphere among patients visiting us.”
Millions of tourists go to Baja each year and the second most important reason to travel to the state is to get health services. The state claims it had 800,000 medical visitors traveled during winter 2012-13, although this includes many who just go for a medical check up, and probably includes large numbers who are just travelling companions. As there is no collecting body, there are concerns that this figure is also exaggerated as clinics and hotels are both counting the same person, and that figures are based on numbers of nights and procedures, not the number of people.
The state government suggests that some visitors stay in Mexico for more than one night if they undergo any kind of treatment or surgical procedure (adding up to 66% of their traveling budget spent on medical attention); patients bring along relatives and/or other companionship (at least in over 70% of the cases); so they all need services such as hotels, restaurants, entertainment and other activities.
Baja is groundbreaking among Mexico’s states by creating this department of medical tourism. One of the key tasks will be to get a better handle on how many medical tourists actually go there.

After three poor years for Lebanon’s tourism industry due to regional and local turmoil, a new tourism minister is looking to expand beyond the traditional Gulf tourists.
Michel Pharaon has several plans to give a needed boost to a sector that makes up 20% of the Lebanese economy. One key area is to focus on attracting more medical tourists, “In Lebanon, we have professionals in the health care industry that can bring in tourists from Yemen, Iraq, Libya and Algeria. We have a committee working hard on the project. An increasing number of Iraqis come to Lebanon for medical reasons. Health tourism has good potential for the country.”
The need to attract tourists from beyond the traditional Gulf markets is especially important as GCC states maintain their travel warnings on Lebanon over possible abductions and other security threats that have kept many Gulf tourists away since 2012, with the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait governments warning their citizens not to travel to the region.
The main problem that Lebanon has is convincing potential medical and other tourists that the government and their security forces and the Army are in control. Last year there was a series of bombings related to the ongoing conflict in neighboring Syria, but Pharaon seeks to convince people of the relative safety throughout much of Lebanon, “70% of Lebanon has not witnessed a gunshot for the past 20 years.”
The number of tourists to Lebanon dropped by 6.69% in 2013 compared with 2012, while European visitors topped the list ahead of Arabs for the first time in years. While the number tourists from the Gulf dropped, Pharaon says that other Arab markets are ripe with potential, “We are currently targeting Jordanians, Iranians, Egyptians and Iraqi tourists.”

Hair transplants are becoming more popular in Ireland with an increasing number of celebrities admitting to having them to make themselves look and feel younger than they are.
An increasing number of clinics in Ireland are offering the procedure as a way of compensating for the falls in the number of locals having cosmetic surgery. For some in Ireland the cost is just far too expensive. Economic troubles have seen a reduction in the number of Irish people flying to Budapest for dental work and cosmetic surgery at low prices, but the previous success in attracting local patients to Hungary sees clinics there now offering low price hair transplant procedures for foreign patients in Budapest.
Hair transplants in Ireland range from €3.95 per follicular unit extraction graft up to €10 per FUE graft in Dublin clinics. People can have the same procedure done in Budapest for as little as €1.70 per FUE graft.
Thomas Dunleavy has launched a new Irish company. Growhair.eu has partnered with Sikos Clinic in Budapest, a cosmetic surgery and hair transplant clinic run by Dr Gèza Sikos who has 22 years experience in hair transplants. Dunleavy has worked in dental tourism in Budapest and saw the need for the same service for hair transplant treatments. Thomas Dunleavy says, “With low cost airline fares on offer to Budapest and hotel prices very cheap it is a win-win for anyone wanting to have the procedure done but who simply cannot afford it in Ireland.”
Potential customers have a free online consultation in Ireland where they speak with Dr Gèza Sikos. Growhair.eu then takes care of the rest; flights, hotel and transfers. For most it is just a one-day procedure where Dr Sikos uses a technique with minimal to zero scaring, transplanting up to 2,800 FUE grafts in one day. This means it is just a two-day visit to Budapest to have treatment carried out. The agency claims that within 7 to 10 days the procedure is unnoticeable and within 9 to 12 months customers will have achieved full re growth of their hair. For an average balding person needing 2,500 FUE grafts the cost in Ireland ranges from €9,875 up to €25,000 depending on which Irish clinic they use. The same treatment in Budapest costs €5,400 with a 10% discount via Growhair reducing it to €4,860.

The SFU Medical Tourism Research Group in Canada has released details of a study on medical tourism in Bangalore, India; ’An Overview of the Medical Tourism Industry in Bangalore, India’.
Bangalore is the capital city of the state of Karnataka, one of the four southern states of India. Bangalore has 15 major hospitals that cater to international medical travel. Some have specialty services like orthopedics, oncology, or reproductive health, but most are multi-specialty hospitals.

Apollo Hospitals Bangalore serves both national and international patients, but a separate wing has an exclusive international patient focus. The hospital has in-house translators for Arabic, and other languages are outsourced to translation agencies. It provides guesthouses within the hospital premises for patients and their carers, with additional housing nearby. Medical tourists do not form a major part of its revenues, although the number of patients is increasing each year, with 1,000 patients in 2013, primarily from the Middle East and Africa, particularly, Central Africa.
Columbia Asia has two hospitals in Bangalore. International patients primarily receive orthopedic, cardiac and ear, nose and throat services. It does not focus exclusively on medical tourism. Although there is no separation between the local and the international wards, it charges higher prices for foreign patients. The majority of patients come from Kenya, Nigeria, and Ethiopia, but it also gets patients from Oman, Iraq, Bahrain, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, and Myanmar. Medical tourists comprise 10 to 12% of the total, and it treats between 25 and 300 foreign patients per month. It offers specific concierge services to patients to help them with their visas and registration.
Fortis Healthcare has five hospitals in Bangalore. Patients come from 55 countries, with 50% from Africa, 6 to 7% from the United Arab Emirates, and 3 to 4% from the UK, US, and Australia. The group has in-house Arabic translators, and gets 40 to 50 medical tourists per month, comprising 22% of all patients and 20% of all revenues.
For Mallya hospital most of the non-resident Indian patients come from the Middle East. The patients generally come with English speaking attenders, but the hospital sometimes experiences problems with Arabic patients who come without such attenders and who are unable to communicate in English. It does not provide any tourism related services.
Manipal hospital is one of the leading hospitals in Bangalore catering to international medical travel. It has in-house translators for Arabic and Swahili. For other languages it hires the services of an outside agency. The hospital offers concierge services to medical tourists and provides accommodation for caregivers. It does not have a separate wing for medical tourists, but an exclusive international wing is being planned. It has a different price structure for domestic and international patients, so international patients pay 30% more. There has been an increase in the number of international patients, mainly from Africa, the Middle East, and the Maldives. It has also had a few patients from Canada, USA and the UK.
Narayana Hrudayalaya gets medical tourists, primarily from Bangladesh, the Middle East, Africa, and Malaysia. 15 to 20% of patients are medical tourists, 500 patients per month. Medical tourism has seen an increase of 30% in the last year. In-house translation services are available for French and Arabic, all other languages require outside agencies to be hired. The hospital has an in-house travel agency, provides concierge services, and has its own accommodation; in addition to this it has ties with hotels and airlines.

The US is regarded by many as a source of medical travelers, but a new website reminds us that inbound medical tourism is at least equally important, and information from across the USA suggests it is again on the rise.

Doctor For Cash, a Las Vegas based company, seeks to increase inbound US medical tourism, so has launched a new website to offer American doctors the means to directly advertise their practices to prospective foreign patients.
Using DrforCash.com, medical professionals are able to clearly indicate the range of services they offer, as well as give accurate pricing information for their procedures. This process is quick and easy, and offers prospective clients — no matter their country of origin — to easily gather the information they need in order to make an informed decision about which doctors they are interested in contacting.
The website is solely targeted at offering the USA as a destination for international patients by helping them find the right. The site allows patients to share their experiences with each other. These client reviews serve to help guide new patients to a doctor who will be the right fit for them.

The latest plan seeking to make Dubai a major medical tourism destination is more detailed than earlier attempts. The plan up until 2016 includes a dedicated portal for medical tourism as well as special medical tourism packages to be promoted in international markets. A second phase to 2020 will aim to further develop facilities and branding to reinforce Dubai as a global medical tourism destination.
Essa Al Maidoor of the Dubai Health Authority explains, "We are focusing on developing Dubai’s medical tourism initiatives. The medical tourism strategy has been designed over two phases, the first one until 2016 and the second until 2020.The aim is to ensure Dubai features among the top medical tourism destinations around the world. We have carefully selected health services to be promoted taking quality and prices into consideration to attract tourists to the emirate."
Dr Ramadan Ibrahim of the health regulation department says that Dubai has 2,500 health facilities and that the number of medical tourists who visited Dubai in 2012 was 107,000. The targets are to get 170,000 by 2016 and 500,000 by 2020. A five fold increase to 500,000 by 2020 is an major challenge that will require Dubai to take business away from other Gulf states, most of which have an extensive hospital building programme; and from leading Asian competitors that are also targeting Russia and CIS countries. For a country with a population of only 4.7 million, 500,000 medical tourists would mean one medical tourist for every ten men, women and children in the state.
The sectors that DHA will promote include orthopedic and sports medicine, cosmetic surgery, eye surgery, dental treatment, dermatology, preventive health check-ups, plus wellness and skincare services.
Target countries will be Russia and other CIS countries including Belarus, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan; South Asia; and other Gulf states, as these regions are where the majority of medical tourists who visit Dubai come from. It has been attracting an increasing number of patients for cosmetic surgery, and has also seen increased numbers from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The medical tourism strategy aims to provide high-quality health services at acceptable prices, so price benchmarks will be set up. 18 private and four public hospitals will be built in the next few years.
Medical tourists will be issued with new visas and a choice of travel and accommodation packages. The packages will include visa, hotel stay and activities in Dubai, to be launched later in 2014. The DHA plans to rate hospitals from one to five stars, depending on the quality of their services, within the next two years. The aim is to a clear-cut ranking system to enable medical tourists to discern what type of facility they want based on the price and location.
There are many challenges in achieving the goals, with many people from the UAE still choosing to travel overseas for treatment, and the medical tourism market seeing supply rise faster than demand. Dubai has a shortage of doctors and nurses, while the vast majority of medical staff are expatriates on short-term contracts who return home after a few years.

A new survey has asked Canadian doctors for their opinions of cross-border healthcare between Canada and the USA, and of overseas medical travel.
The report, “Methods: A Cross Border Health Care Survey” was recently published in Globalisation and Health. The four authors used research with Canadian doctors via the Canadian Medical Association’s e-panel. The purpose of the survey was to gain an understanding of their experiences and views of their patients acquiring health care out of country, either as medical tourists paying out-of-pocket for their care or out-of-country care patients funded by provincial/territorial public health insurance plans.
Quantitative and qualitative results of the survey were analyzed. 631 doctors replied. Diagnostic procedures are the main reason for patients becoming medical tourists.
The main reason why patients seek care abroad is because waiting times in Canada are too long. Some doctors are frustrated with the lack of information about out-of-country procedures and post return complications upon their patients’ return to Canada. The majority agrees that it is their responsibility to provide follow-up care to medical travellers, although a substantial minority argues that they have no such responsibility.
The report concludes that cross-border health care, whether government-sanctioned or patient-initiated is increasing in Canada. Such flows are thought likely to increase with aging populations. Government-sanctioned outbound flows are less problematic than patient-initiated flows but are constrained by low approval rates, which may increase the number paying for their own overseas treatment.
The authors argue that further research on both types of flows (government-sanctioned and patient-initiated), and how they affect the Canadian health system, can contribute to a more informed debate about the role of cross-border health care in the future, and how it might be organized and regulated.

South Korea aims to attract 350,000 tourists a year from Russia by 2017 by developing tourism programmes including medical services tailored to Russian customers. This will mean more work for medical and other translators, plus some hospitals may hire Russian-speaking doctors.
The number of Russians visiting Korea has been steadily rising. In 2013, the number of Russian travelers reached 175,000, up 5% from 2012; but it is not known how many of these travelled for health or medical reasons.
South Korea is just one of many countries all seeking to target the increasing numbers of medical tourists from Russia. The competition is fierce, and many places struggle with language capability.
The regional government in Incheon, which has a modern international airport and is scheduled to host the Asian Games this year, sees medical tourism as a major potential earner.
The Incheon Medical Tourism Foundation (IMTF) was founded in 2011 with the ambition of making Incheon Northeast Asia’s leading medical tourism city. It has been accredited by the Ministry of Health and Welfare as an approved regional medical tourism association.
According to IMTF, the number of medical tourists in the region rose from 2,898 in 2010 to 4,400 in 2011, and from 6,317 in 2012 to over 10,000 in 2013.The target for 2014 is 14,000 medical tourists.
The IMTF is targeting patients from Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, after a deal in January 2014 between Korea and Russia that allows travellers to visit in either direction for up to 60 days without a visa.
New plans for 2014 include a one-hour medical service at Incheon Airport, targeting transfer passengers so that they can receive fast and accurate medical checkups, skin care, and teeth cleaning, while waiting for their plane. The service will ensure that patients get to the hospital within one hour after their arrival at the airport; targeting 500,000 passengers with more than a four-hour layover at the airport, out of 6.5 million Incheon airport transfer passengers.
A medical information centre will be set up within Incheon Airport’s Customs, Immigration, and Quarantine area and transfer desk areas so people can experience medical services, get medical tourism information, and meet potential doctors.

Incheon sees the main target areas as China, Russia, Central Asia, Vietnam, Canada and US military personnel based in the region. In 2012, international patients (not necessarily medical tourists) were: 28 % Chinese, 8.9 % Americans, 7.6 % Russians, and 4.0 % Mongolians. Russia is showing a high annual growth rate of 88.1 % in the last four years.
To take advantage of Incheon airport, the aim is to create the image of “Incheon Healthcare City” by naming Incheon Airport as the “Medical Hub Airport.” Within this, is a new group, the Incheon Cerebral & Cardiovascular Cluster (ICC). Within the ICC are Incheon City, Incheon Medical Tourism Foundation, Catholic University, Gacheon Gil Hospital, Inha University Hospital, and other smaller hospitals and clinics. The point of ICC is to jointly target cerebral and cardiovascular disease medical tourists as a group.

The number of medical tourists visiting Tunisia is increasing every year. The majority come from Libya because of the better level of care available in Tunisia and the wrecked state of Libyan healthcare. Even before the 2011 revolution, many Libyans would visit private Tunisian hospitals for a regular check-up, with their government footing the bill. Even now, many have their medical care paid for by the state as long as they can provide evidence from a Libyan doctor that they are unwell.
Tunisia seeks to become a major regional destination for medical and health tourism.155,000 foreign patients went to Tunisia in 2013 according to health minister Mohamed Salah Ben Ammar. European patients also visit Tunisia, mostly for health tourism and holidays at hotels providing spas and medical centres in their facilities.
Cosmetic surgery and dental treatment are other reasons the country attracts many patients from Europe, the Gulf and Asia, with the number increasing year by year. Within Tunisia the main locations are on the coast including Tunis, Bizerte, Tabarka, Sousse, Sfax, Gabes, and Jerba.
Tunisia is also famous for its hot water springs in Tunis, Hammam-Lif, Korbous, Jebel Oust, Ezzeriba, Zaghouan, Hammam Ejjedidi, Nafta, and Hamma Gabes. The temperature of these hot water springs can reach 65 degrees celsius and are believed to be a good remedy for rheumatism and other diseases. The Ministry of Tourism is reluctant to promote these as attractive tourist destinations, as they are concerned that the quality of care and accommodation is not yet acceptable to modern tourists.

The Diplomatic Council medical program, a Netherlands based membership group is certifying the “best hospitals of the world” for international patients and medical tourists. The fees for this certification process depend on the size of the facility. They usually range from €25,000 to €40,000 plus an annual renewal fee.
The certification process is carried out by Temos, the German based international hospital certifiers, who evaluate the hospital after a month-long preparation phase and review process, examining quality criteria relevant to the delivery of services to the international patient.
A second certification, "Approved for International Patients’ is conducted on a self-evaluation basis and can be obtained online. Hospitals again pay an annual fee. But there is no visit or external audit. The fees for the certificate are €1,600 per year plus 19 % VAT.
The Diplomatic Council is a membership organisation, based in The Hague “founded as a non-governmental organisation (NGO) with the purpose of developing friendly relations among nations”. membership is not restricted to members of the Diplomatic Corps, and is open to “distinguished personalities from politics, economy, society, culture and sports.” According to their web site: ’All members of the Diplomatic Council are reviewed by the “Council of Ambassadors” and being classified as “honourable”’ It does not have official status with any government or other body.