Significance, experiences and suggestions for developing international medical tourism / 中国卫生政策研究

ABSTRACT

On the basis of drawing on recently published literature on international medical tourism, this paper comprehensively summarizes the effects thereof on driving economic growth, expanding employment and improving in-ternational competitive power, analyzes the main driving forces for the international medical tourism development and the experiences from Thailand, India, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, etc. According to China’s advantages and dis-advantages and learning from the international experience, this paper proposes suggestions to develop China’s interna-tional medical tourism, including an improvement to the management system, formulating international medical tourism development strategies, building brand characteristics with traditional Chinese medicine, constructing ‘Ex-perimental and Leading Area’ , and promoting international certification for the medical institutions and services.