Outbound medical tourism soars five-fold in China in 2016

The number of Chinese tourists who made outbound medical trips through one of China’s most popular travel agencies this year is up five times that of last year, Ctrip reports.

A report by the travel app and website Ctrip.com is expecting 500,000 outbound medical trips to be made by Chinese tourists by the end of 2016.

Ctrip offers more than 300 medical tourism products in cooperation with 80 travel agencies.

The average expenditure of outbound medical tourism per capita reached more than 50,000 yuan (7,200 USD), ten times the average per capita spend of conventional tourism, and ranked second only after polar tourism.

The high quality of medical services abroad is the main lure for Chinese tourists. The top ten destinations for medical care are Japan, South Korea, the US, Taiwan, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, Switzerland, Thailand and India.

Health checks, including early detection of possible cancers, accounts for half of all outbound medical trips, while plastic surgery trips are also popular among female tourists. Figures show that Chinese tourists made over 100,000 medical trips to South Korea this year, most of them were attracted by plastic surgery.

Residents of Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hangzhou and Shenzhen comprised the largest group of tourists seeking overseas medical care.

Source: CRI English