Spain is one of the favorite destinations for travelers from all over the world. Year after year, we have seen this number increase.
And it is not a passing phenomenon, as the World Tourism Organization indicated that Spain is the 2nd most visited country in the world (only after the United States), with figures close to 90 billion euros.
However, what is the relationship between these figures and the private healthcare sector?
In recent years, we have seen an explosive growth in health tourism, although the phenomenon is not new. In ancient times, the sick traveled long distances to receive medical treatments and care in better conditions than they could receive in their own cities. This happened in ancient Greece, where it was common to travel to various temples for healing or care, traveling long distances without today’s conveniences.
But the world has changed a lot, and today health tourism is understood as:
“Traveling to receive treatment or care in a country different from one’s own, seeking better quality, better prices, or access to types of interventions that are nonexistent or impossible to access in the home country.”
Although the number of health tourists was relatively low compared to the total figures, as we saw in 2016, tourism reached 75 million visitors, of which an estimated 140,000 tourists had some medical purpose. It is also estimated that this number will reach 200,000 tourists in 2020, which represents an increase of 43% in just four years.
The figures only confirm what is already known: Spain can offer much more than “sun and beach.” After all, who wouldn’t want a trip with all the comforts to one of the most popular and beautiful destinations in Spain while also receiving treatment from some of the best healthcare professionals in the world?
Why Invest in Medical Tourism?
As we have seen, medical tourism presents an untapped market niche with solid growth and very favorable forecasts.
For many of our clients, the possibility of internationalizing their services and treatments has resulted in significant improvements in both revenue and global promotion and recognition.
Globally, Spain is recognized as one of the countries with the best medical infrastructure, being the 7th healthiest country in the world according to WHO data, or the 3rd according to the prestigious Newsweek magazine (only surpassed by Japan and Switzerland).
However, the underdevelopment towards international patients slows the development of this sector, making the advice of a good medical business consultancy very important. This option allows healthcare centers to offer their services to health tourists without the need to create their own infrastructure capable of handling the management, information, advice, and certification necessary to accept this type of patient.
There are many types of patients, although the main ones are:
- Price-driven Health Tourism: In which the tourist decides to undergo treatments in Spain because the costs are lower than in their home country. This is common for tourists traveling for this purpose from the European Community, the United States, or Japan.
- General Medicine Health Tourism: Patients who decide to travel to treat conditions or problems that cannot be treated in their home country, or where the quality of professionals capable of treating them is not comparable to what they would receive in Spain.
Therefore, these patients will primarily value competent, well-informed professionals who give them the comfort of not having to worry about anything during their trip.
Healthcare Consultancies: The Best Option
As a consultancy for medical clinics, we perform several main functions to facilitate and enable treatment for international patients. On one hand, we must certify the healthcare centers to be able to receive patients (considering the requirements and regulations of the main tourist-sending countries), adapt the center for good communication with tourists to ensure proper quality of care (with a department capable of working in several languages), and also promote the center at various international medical congresses or in centers in other countries.
We specialize in creating and certifying the appropriate infrastructure to ensure that your medical center or private clinic meets quality standards and can accept international patients.
