Medical tourism is a new form of tourism that combines tourism and health services. Patients can travel at the same time of treatment according to the doctor’s diagnosis and suggestions, so as to achieve the purpose of real-time health management. At present, a few cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hainan, actively learn from the development experience of foreign medical tourism, and start to formulate policies and measures for the development of medical tourism in this region, so as to promote the rapid development of medical tourism in China. According to the data of China business intelligence network, the scale of China’s medical tourism market will be about 16.67 billion US dollars in 2018, and the average annual compound growth rate from 2018 to 2022 will reach 19.45%. It is estimated that the medical tourism market scale will reach 33.93 billion US dollars by 2022. The blue ocean of health tourism with the theme of medical maintenance has emerged. Although the current development potential of medical tourism in China has been recognized, it is still restricted by the factors such as the medical system and unbalanced resource matching, and lacks a high-quality, perfect and whole process medical tourism service and support system. In contrast, the development of medical tourism in Germany, Thailand, India, Japan, South Korea and other countries is relatively mature, and the medical tourism system is relatively perfect. Therefore, through the analysis and reference of foreign medical tourism development experience, we can provide reference for the development of medical tourism in China.

1、 Development of medical tourism in foreign countries

（1） Medical tourism develops rapidly

At present, high medical cost and long waiting time are the main driving factors to stimulate the active medical tourism market. According to the statistics of Haitong Securities Network in 2018, 26.5% of British patients chose to leave the country for medical treatment in order to avoid long-term waiting in China; 33.1% of patients in the United States sought cross-border treatment in order to seek low medical costs, which has become one of the factors driving the rapid development of medical tourism. At the same time, the medical institutions certified by the Joint Commission for accreditation of international medical and health institutions (JCI) are recognized as having high medical standards. When some patients choose medical treatment, they will choose the medical institutions that have obtained JCI certification. Therefore, the rapid growth of JCI certification has become an important driving factor for the development of foreign medical tourism market. Up to now, more than 600 foreign medical institutions have obtained JCI certification, and will continue to grow at a rate of 20%.

（2） Medical tourism market has initially formed a brand mark

According to the analysis of the statistical data of FMIS, the medical tourism market can be divided into dental treatment, fertility treatment, orthopedic treatment and other general treatments according to the types of medical projects, and some countries and regions have formed unique brand marks. For example, chopulang (Dentistry) in Hungary, hot spring in Japan, spa in Thailand, Yaou Ting cave cosmetic surgery in Seoul, South Korea, anti-aging in Montreux, Switzerland, etc., have initially produced brand effects and brought great economic benefits. In addition, the foreign medical market has formed its own characteristics on the basis of brand logo. According to relevant data statistics, as of 2018, medical tourism services of Thailand, India and Singapore have accounted for 85% of the whole Asian medical tourism service market; Mexico has the fastest growth rate of cross-border medical patients in the global tourism market.

（3） The specialization of medical tourism in various countries is becoming more and more prominent

According to the latest medical tourism index released by MTA, 41 countries have participated in the medical tourism market, which makes the professionalism of medical tourism more prominent. For example, India ranked first in terms of professional cardiac surgery; Israel ranked first in terms of service and facility quality; Singapore was the most popular medical tourism destination due to its professional level in complex surgical procedures; Thailand was the most popular medical tourism destination as the world’s top beauty surgery center; and the number one medical tourism destination was Israel; Malaysia is favored by consumers because of its first-class medical infrastructure and highly skilled medical professionals. It can be seen that with the rapid development of medical tourism, the professional service ability of foreign medical tourism industry has become increasingly prominent.