Medical Tourism Network Thailand, Study Report
Medical Tourism Network Thailand, Study Report
on approval of the strategic plan to develop Thailand as a “Medical Hub of Asia”, the plan aims to promote related sectors consist of medical care services, health promotion tourism, and Thai herbal & health products. The core business in the medical care services is the private hospitals and the number is now up to 256 private hospitals all over the country. In addition, there is more than a hundred of private hospitals be able to accommodate the foreign customers. Since 2002 the number of foreign customers in Thailand is high and has risen every year. There were 1.42 million foreign customers using medical care services in Thailand and created revenue up to 37,300 million Baht particularly in 2007. The medical care services distribute revenue to other linkage industries, for example, pharmaceutical, medical equipment, medial tourism, hotels, restaurants, etc.; consequently, the growth bring about job creation and economic expansion overall. Accordingly, the importance of those businesses to tourism industry caused Tourism Authority of Thailand to study “the Structure of Business Investment in the Medical Tourism Industry” related to the major industry : private hospitals and its linkage industries in order to obtain useful data to further develop strategies and policies to promote and bolster the medical tourism industry.