Offshore Doctors: The Demand for Medical Tourism

Medical tourism is niche tourism, like ecotourism, religious tourism, and adventure tourism. Robinson and Novelli describe tourist niches as depending on the existence of a market as well as an audience for the product.1 Such tourism does not draw masses but rather it appeals to a select number of people whose demand is big enough to generate sufficient business. Medical tourism, with its component medical and tourist parts, has both a market and an audience. Unlike ecotourism, in which a traveler will choose a destination and then seek an ecology focus, in medical tourism the traveler chooses medical care first, and only then pairs it with a destination and possibly even a vacation tie-in.2 As all tourism is goal oriented (in the sense that travelers want to see a sight, or experience a tribal encounter, or touch a historical artifact, or simply party), so too medical tourism occurs with a specific goal in mind. The traveling patient aims to purchase a particular service and to achieve a defined health goal. That patient seeks to maximize utility subject to his income constraints. In that calculation, medical services dominate, but nonmedical services, including the accommodations, restaurant meals, excursions, and ground transportation, are not insignificant to the total experience.