Amid the highly competitive medical tourism market, KASIKORNBANK (KBank) notes that concerted action is needed to bring Thailand to the forefront of the global arena. Notably, four key factors that would make Thailand emerge as a world-class medical hub over the long term are promotion of a health tech ecosystem through research and development (R&D) on health innovations, genomic medicine, government support and corporate ventures. Thailand should focus on promoting sustainable medical tourism as a long-term key economic driver so as to accommodate the aging society while also reducing the government’s public health expense burden. Medical tourism is projected to bring in around 150 billion Baht in revenue to the country by 2037.
Mr. Pipit Aneaknithi, KBank President, gave a lecture on “Medical Hub in Thailand: Opportunities and Challenges” in the Academic Endocrine Weekend 2021 seminar, organized by the Endocrine Society of Thailand, observing that before the emergence of COVID-19, Thailand earned a great deal of income from inbound tourism, as the country is one of the world’s major tourist destinations. Thailand is also known as a medical hub of Asia, as seen from the number of medical tourist arrivals in Thailand that accounted for 38 percent of Asia’s total in 2017. However, the number of medical tourists had declined steadily even before the COVID-19 pandemic erupted. As evidenced, growth of Thai medical tourism fell from 13 percent in 2017 to only 0.3 percent in 2019. This raises the question of how Thailand should tackle its challenges to maintain its status as a world-class medical tourism destination over the long term.
Three major challenges for Thailand’s medical tourism are as follows:
- Structural challenges: Thailand’s healthcare industry mainly provides treatment for uncomplicated illnesses, focusing on services rather than technology or specialized treatment. Moreover, the number of physicians is limited, and supply of medical personnel is expected to fall short of demand, which is rapidly rising amid Thailand’s transition towards an aged society. Meanwhile, Thailand is heavily reliant upon imported medication and medical equipment. In 2020 alone, the country’s imports of medicines and medical equipment were valued at more than 160 billion Baht, representing 70 percent of total expenses in this category. In fact, this huge budget should have been earmarked for R&D on home-grown innovative medicines.
- COVID-19: The pandemic has inevitably affected the overall tourism industry, including medical tourism. The number of medical tourists is expected to return to pre-pandemic levels of 1.2 to 1.3 million per year in 2024, or within the next three years.
- Intense regional competition: Compared to other countries, for example, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia, which have all promoted medical tourism as one of their core businesses, Thailand’s strength is underlined by competitive treatment costs, which are some 82 percent lower than those in the US. In terms of accreditation, there are now 66 medical establishments in Thailand that have been certified by the Joint Commission International (JCI) for their treatment standards. However, competition has further intensified, as evidenced by Malaysia’s entry into this market as one of Thailand’s key rivals. Meanwhile, some countries have invested in their own comprehensive medical centers, such as Dubai Health Care City (DHCC), in response to demand in the Middle East, which has been among Thailand’s key clients.
On account of the aforementioned challenges, Thailand has been driven to shift its focus from quantity of medical tourists to the quality aspect, to achieve a sustainable medical tourism sector with high quality, attractive technical skills and advanced technologies, which will be able to support the overall economy in the long term. Meanwhile, this direction will enhance the country’s medical potential in the face of an aging society, while helping to reduce the government’s public health expenses.
Key factors to boost Thailand as a world-class medical hub include the following:
1. Promotion of Health Tech Ecosystem
1.1 Use of technologies in service improvement: The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the application of online medical platforms, as seen from the increased use of telemedicine to facilitate medical service access for the general public. This new practice also generates more income, while alleviating the burden of public health systems with the growing number of aging people. One interesting example of health tech is Ping An Good Doctor in China, which provides comprehensive health services. There are 400 million registered users of the service, creating more than USD1 billion of income.
1.2 Support of the health tech and startup ecosystem in Thailand in a comprehensive manner. Presently, there is such an ecosystem here, covering drugs, herbal medicines that have been researched and developed using advanced sciences and technologies, physical therapy service, telemedicine, and a doctor network. Thailand’s medical service could be further enhanced with sufficient financial support, enhanced capabilities, and the establishment of large-scale and realistic business models.
2. Transition towards genomic medicine
2.1 Genomic medicine is a medical innovation that uses genetic and other health data to diagnose, treat, and project risk factors that cause disease, including chronic illness treatment at the cellular level. Genomic medicine offers effective and accurate treatments for chronic disease, but is relatively costly.
2.2 Promotion of genomic medicine would help upgrade Thailand’s medical service towards precision medicine that uses technologies for the treatment of complex diseases. If achieved, precision medicine would allow Thailand to generate substantial income from medical tourism and enhance the efficiency of the country’s public health service. As a result, health care expenses in the country – which are largely the government’s burden – could be reduced. It has been projected that the import of genomic medicine for use in the country could help Thailand cut public health spending by more than 300 billion Baht, or over 1 percent of GDP, by 2037.
3. Government support
3.1 Thailand’s medical hub strategic plan rests with the government, particularly efforts in rolling out medical specialists and promoting medical research, with the aim of enhancing Thailand’s capabilities in creating distinct Thai medical products by blending technologies to supply the industry. Such endeavors would help further elevate Thailand’s status as a medical hub to meet customers’ needs in the post-COVID-19 era.
3.2 Investment promotion via BOI: This trend is apparent as the government is currently promoting investment in specialized services and the provision of services that use advanced technologies by offering tax exemptions for up to eight years. Therefore, this is an opportunity for related service providers to invest in such businesses.
3.3 Issuance of policy to support long-stay visas (10 years) for foreigners, consistent with the global transition towards aging societies
4. Corporate venture
Major companies in Thailand have invested in technology and provided funding for the launch of healthcare and medical services in various settings, including medical centers, telemedicine, and pharmaceutical companies. Leading private corporations may come to recognize the potential of the health tech business – comprised of small service providers that are known for their innovations, and the opportunities presented by genomic medicine, which could be further developed into a broad range of services, thus elevating Thailand to the status of a regional medical hub more quickly and sustainably.
Mr. Pipit adds that Thailand can definitely and sustainably elevate its healthcare services to become one of the world’s leading medical hubs if domestic operators could successfully integrate their technological potential, while receiving sufficient support through government policies and investment from high performance organizations in the private sector. The healthcare industry could play a key role in bringing income into the country and moving the economy forward in the forthcoming period. Furthermore, Thais would gain easier access to medical services at more affordable prices through improved technology, while the government would tend to benefit from reduced public health expenses in the long run.
In 2019, Thailand’s medical tourism generated 23.5 billion Baht in revenue. By 2037, it is projected to bring in revenue of up to 150 billion Baht.