Medical Tourism in the Philippines - Philippine Institute for ...

B. Demand, Revenues, and Market OpportunityThe unclear measure of global demand for medical tourism follows from the murkiness of thedefinition of the term, as explained above. A second source of murkiness is the timing of the study whenthe demand figures were calculated. Almost all of the global or regional medical tourism studies weredone prior to the recession that started in 2006 and lasted well into 2008 and still continues in someEuropean countries. Some of the original studies have been recession-adjusted by their respectiveanalysts, but the original studies are still in the Internet and being quoted.Some estimates of the measure of demand for medical tourism are as follows.a. Using a restrictive definition, McKinsey (2011) estimated the number of global medical touristsin 2008 to be between 60,000 to 85,000. The figure for outbound Americans in the same yearwas only 5,000 to 10,000.b. KPMG (2011) estimated global medical tourists to reach 3.0 million by the early 2010s.c. Using a very liberal definition, Deloitte (n.d.b) estimated 750,000 outbound Americans whosought medical care 11 in 2007/08. The base model showed this number to grow to 15.75 millionin 2017 with an upper bound of 23.20 million and a lower bound of around 10.43 million.Deloitte scaled down these forecasts using a factor of -20 percent for 2007 and -10 percent for2008, but rebounding back starting in 2009 onward.d. Rush (n.d.) estimated U.S. outbound medical tourists in 2007 to be between 50,000 to 121,000.e. Using international passenger survey data, Intuition Communication, Ltd. estimated the U.K.outbound medical tourists in 2009 to be 54,000.f. Using international passenger survey data, Keith Pollard (2012) of Treatment Abroad estimatedthat 60,000 U.K. patients traveled abroad in 2010, 41 percent for cosmetic surgery, 32 percentfor dental, 9 percent for obesity, and 4.5 percent for infertility treatment.g. Josef Woodman in his book “Patients Beyond Borders” estimated more than 2 millioninternational medical patients a year, of whom about 400,000 are Americans (quoted bywww.whereismydoctor.com).Global estimates of revenues from medical tourism also show large variability. For the late2000s/early 2010s, Deloitte (2008) estimated the revenues from U.S. outbound medical tourists atUS$2.1 billion (2008) and forecast it to grow to US$27.6 billion in 2013. HealthCORE (2011) cited aglobal revenue figure of US$40 billion (2010). The NCPA (2007) cited US$ 60 billion global revenues in2006 and projected it to reach US$100 billion in 2012. Bloomberg was cited by the media as havingestimated US$5 billion revenues in 2012. The Confederation of Asian Industry cited a figure of US$2billion revenues in 2012.11 Those who traveled within the US are called intrabound medical tourists. Foreigners traveling from abroad to seek care inthe US are called inbound medical tourists (Deloitte, n.d.).7