Many studies reveal the reasons why the medical and wellness tourism are growing

Medical and wellness tourism represent two of the most performing segments. As we have already observed, the Global Wellness Institute (GWI) reported that, in 2015, almost 700 million wellness travels were registered globally, representing 7% of the total.

As reported by the “Medical Tourism Market – Industry Trends, Opportunities and Forecasts to 2023” published by Research and Markets, the medical tourism market is expected to grow from about 45 billion euros (56.333bn US dollars) in 2018 to about 111 billion euros in 2023 (136.591bn US dollars).
According to the Global Wellness Institute, this segment is growing thanks to the world population which is rapidly ageing, the chronic diseases deriving from stressful working conditions of the middle class and also to a consistent number of tourists looking for natural and authentic experiences. The percentage of people between 35 and 54 years is the biggest group of travellers with a share of around 50 percent, followed by under 35 travellers and over 55.

The growing trend of the wellness tourism segment is confirmed by a survey conducted by IPK International, an international tourism consulting company. The report underlines that, last year, almost 70% of all international health and medical trips were made for leisure reasons such as wellness and spa holidays.

As we have already reported, Europe proved to be the world favourite wellness tourism destination, recording about 250 million international travels. The favourite European countries are Germany, France, Austria (in particular for its spa facilities) and Italy, even if Hungary is an interesting emerging destination.

Outside Europe, the fastest-growing markets are the USA, especially for health and medical tourism, Mexico and Japan. In fact, as reported by the Pacific Standard, a growing number of US citizens are crossing the Mexican border to receive medical treatments, due to the high costs of health cares in their homeland.

As reported by 4Hoteliers, the APAC region is becoming an interesting emerging market, as its countries can offer both high standards of hospitality and innovative technologies in the medical sector. Thailand, India and Malaysia have already developed as key countries for medical tourism, while new ones are now emerging, such as UAE and Taiwan. In fact, the Dubai Health Authority has just announced the 1^st Dubai International Medical Tourism Forum that will be held on the 20^th and 21^st of February.

At Twissen we observed that medical and wellness are profitable tourism segments, and they provide interesting opportunities of investment, especially for minor destinations. In fact, offering a quality accommodation system, combined to effective health cares, can be the key for the success of the destination.

Martina Baldo

She graduated in Intercultural Development of Tourism Systems and she has a passion for foreign languages and cultures. Since 2016 she works as administration and tourism project manager at Twissen.