30-Dec-16 According to China’s leading online travel marketplace, Ctrip, Chinese medical tourism grew to reach 500,000 outbound trips in 2016, and Ctrip's medical tourism business grew by 500%, having been launched in Sep 2015. Health checks made up over 50% of Chinese medical tourism trips in 2016. Among Ctrip’s customers, Japan was the most popular destination followed by Korea. [image: Shutterstock / Jing Daily]

19-Dec-16 When it comes to surgical procedures to enhance beauty, Chinese women are twice as generous than their global peers. "I would say Chinese patients are the most dramatic," said Woffles Wu, a prominent plastic surgeon in Singapore. His clinic receives 30 to 40 patients from China every month. A few years ago, the number was in single digits, he said. [image: Feng Haiyong / China Daily]

15-Dec-16 A number of changes that are afoot in Japan as the country seeks to enhance its medical tourism footprint by helping patients further afield. The government announced a push towards medical commercialisation in 2010, and this prompted Japanese companies and hospitals to open 19 medical services in 13 countries since then. [image: Aizawa Healthcare International Ltd]

06-Dec-16 With promotion and publicity focused on China, Thailand has strong potential to lure very-rich Chinese. Singapore has the edge over Thailand by way of its Mandarin-speaking skills. Some 483,000 people travelled from China for medical tourism in 2015. They spent USD6.3 bn on treatment and USD3.4 bn on travel and accommodation, making outbound Chinese medical tourism a USD9.7 bn business. [image: Bangkok Post]

08-Dec-16 As competition heats up in Singapore between private and public healthcare providers, many are looking at regional expansion for growth opportunities. Across the hospital players in the region, consensus is looking towards emerging markets like Cambodia and Vietnam for expansion. [image: Company, OIR]