Abstract

Previous studies on health tourism were limited to a small range of topics related to medical tourism. At present, the concept of health tourism has become profound because medical care has been altered from “disease-centered” to “health-centered”. The main purpose of this study is to identify the key factors influencing the development of health tourism in China. To this end, in the first stage, an intra-industry trade theory was introduced and quantitative methods were applied to discover the important factors. In the second stage, multiple sources, including empirical studies, official data, research reports, and notably field investigations and case studies were incorporated to take in-depth discussions. The results indicated the foremost factors affecting the health tourism trade were total health expenditure per capita and the number of domestic health consumers. Notably, health tourism was substantially determined by the “willingness to spend on health” of domestic health consumers. In addition, Chinese health tourists were more likely to positively accept health tourism services in China. An important conclusion is that China should diversify health tourism offerings for different consumer groups. Once diversified products for health tourism are provided, the number of health tourism consumers will soar accordingly, which thus contributes to forming economies of scale, lowering the average costs of health treatment, increasing health tourism profit, and stimulating economic development.

Introduction

“Sustainable health tourism” can be broadly defined as tourism that involves medical and wellness activities that enhance both physical and mental health (Hei and Xiang, 2020). However, health tourism is a dynamic phenomenon, that is to say, there is no uniform standard for the concept. Before exploring health tourism in more depth, it is important to note that early studies in tourism were not attentive to the role of health—this is not surprising given that for many years most tourism-related businesses (e.g., hotels) and destinations have primarily provided regular tourism resources. During this period, medical services and facilities did not play a meaningful role in attracting tourists (Goodrich and Goodrich, 1987). However, of late, the role of healthcare is becoming increasingly important, with travelers “specifically seeking treatment for diseases and travel health services from other countries” (Goodrich, 1993). This trend has clarified the concept of the “health traveler”, which represents the collection of all phenomena associated with temporarily leaving one’s place of residence to seek health services for the purpose of maintaining and promoting health (Mueller and Kaufmann, 2001). This gradual expansion of the cognitive boundary of health tourism has given rise to “a commercial phenomenon of improving health tourism services” (Hall, 2003).

Conclusions

From the perspective of health globalization, health tourism balances high-quality medical resources, broadens people’s access to health, gives patients a fairer choice, and speeds up competition in the health tourism trade between countries. In this sense, this study is novel and of great practical importance. Using the intra-industry trade theory and the empirical model, our study uncovered the most critical factors affecting health tourism trade in China, which, under the conditions of open trade, are total health expenditure per capita and the number of domestic health consumers. Generally, we found that health tourists would seek a diversity of products on a global scale to maximize their health benefits. Domestic demand would enable domestic enterprises to gain comparative advantages in the production of health tourism products, and domestic trade could drive international trade and attract more foreign tourists to earn foreign exchange income.