Share of medical tourists Thailand 2018, by region of origin

In 2018, 58 percent of medical tourists in Thailand came from East Asia. This was followed by medical tourists from Europe, accounting for another 16 percent. Thailand was one of the most popular destinations for medical purposes in Southeast Asia among foreign visitors because of the reasonable prices and high medical standards.

Value of medical tourism in Thailand

Since 2016, Thailand had been promoting medical tourism as part of the Thailand 4.0 policy, aiming to position the country as the medical hub of Asia. With the support of heavily promoted campaigns and publicity, the value of medical tourism in Thailand reached around 600 million U.S. dollars in 2018, which ranked Thailand as the fourth-most popular countries worldwide for medical tourism.

Healthcare capacity in Thailand

Since 2010, the number of doctors in Thailand had gradually increased, amounting to almost 40 thousand in 2019. With that number, the ratio of doctors to population in Thailand was one doctor per approximately 1.7 thousand population. As it was expected that Thailand would welcome more medical tourists in the future owing to the Thailand 4.0 policy, Thai healthcare resources would need to be improved to meet these demands.