Tag: Medical Tourism

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Japan is Building a Medical Tourism Mecca in Osaka

Where: Osaka, Japan
January 26, 2011 at 9:36 AM | by | Comment (1)

Japan's obviously been trying to brainstorm ways to drum up more tourists. Plan A, the "Welcome to Japan bra" that greets tourists in three languages, must not be working, because it's resorting to plan B: making Osaka a medical tourism center.

The country adopted a new growth strategy in June that includes promoting medical tourism. The Raffles Medical Group of Singapore, which will set up shop in Osaka, just might be the botox shot the city needed to become a top medical tourism destination.

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Spain Emerges as a Hot Spot for Babymaking Tourism

Where: Spain
August 27, 2010 at 11:53 AM | by | Comments (0)

India has been known as a place to go for overseas fertility treatments, but it looks like Spain is emerging as the center for fertility tourism for its excellent clinics and its policies that favor egg donors.

A high percentage of British couples, in particular, are heading to the country for help getting pregnant. The UK's up-to-two-year wait for donated eggs is frustrating many British couples, so they are opting to try their luck in Spain. Donors aren't as plentiful in the U.K. because they cannot receive payment, only about $86 a day, with a max of $388, for loss of earnings and some out-of-pocket costs, like food and travel. In Spain, donors all receive $1,142 for their services.

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Latvia Wants to Be a Hotspot for LASIK and More Medical Tourism

Where: Latvia
March 23, 2010 at 9:00 AM | by | Comments (4)

Riga, Latvia, wants to inject itself into the global medical tourism industry. It's promising visitors tighter skin, nicer teeth and other fountain-of-youth services in the capital of the Baltic country.

But Latvia will have to compete with more established medical tourism destinations, such as South Korea and South Africa. What the country has in its favor is price: cosmetic surgery can be 40 percent cheaper there than in Western Europe, the Times Online reported.

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Three Top Destinations For a Medical Vacation

February 18, 2010 at 9:30 AM | by | Comment (1)

With health-care reform stalling out and the recession in full swing, there are more reasons than ever for people to seek cheaper medical treatment overseas. According to a recent report from the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, although the U.S. economy has slowed down, the demand for cosmetic procedures is up. In 2007 an estimated 750,000 Americans traveled abroad for health care, and the number is supposed to reach 6 million this year, Deloitte reported. We take look at popular medical tourism spots.

See which countries people are traveling to for a quickie nip and tuck after the jump.

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South Korea Promotes Itself As The Spot For Eyelid Surgery

Where: Korea
February 16, 2010 at 10:35 AM | by | Comments (0)

With health-care reform stalling out and the recession in full swing, there are more reasons than ever for people to seek cheaper medical treatment overseas. According to a recent report from the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, although the U.S. economy has slowed down, the demand for cosmetic procedures is up. In 2007 an estimated 750,000 Americans traveled abroad for health care, and the number is supposed to reach 6 million this year, Deloitte reported. This week, we'll look at popular medical tourism spots.

South Korea is one place that's really pushing its medical tourism services. It has its own government-backed Council for Korea Medicine Overseas Promotion and will turn the island of Jeju into a resort-style medical tourism center dubbed "Healthcare Town" in 2011.

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Who Knew That Shopping In New York Could Include Brett Favre's Sperm?

Where: Park Avenue [map], New York, NY, United States
September 2, 2009 at 8:59 AM | by | Comments (0)

You've heard about plastic surgery travel and medical tourism, and maybe even about how sex travel morphs into pregnancy travel, but are you ready for sperm tourism? That's what we're predicting for New York with the upcoming opening of California Cryobank's "Celebrity Look-a-Like" service on Park Avenue.

Of course this began in Los Angeles, and the idea is simple: sperm donors are categorized by what celebrity they most resemble. Women looking to patronize the sperm bank's Look-A-Like program simply pick out the celebrity they'd ideally like their artificially inseminated child to resemble, pay $350 to $500 for a vial and information like facial features details, and the transaction is done.

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Turns Out South Korea Is Just As Shallow As Thailand

Where: Korea
November 17, 2008 at 11:30 AM | by | Comment (1)

After watching Thailand, India and Argentina grab all the headlines--and big-spenders--South Korea is now courting medical tourists looking for everything from cheap joint replacements to low-cost breast implants. Government officials are encouraging the nascent industry, too, by relaxing immigration rules and working with foreign hospitals so potential patients will decide to have procedures done in Korea instead of elsewhere in Asia.

On Jeju Island south of the mainland, for example, the Wooridul Spine Hospital is adding apartments, a concert hall and an art museum to its existing amenities, which include a golf course, says The New York Times. A government official says:

We believe this is a major future industry for our island. The town will specialize in medical checkups, long-term convalescence and procedures Korean doctors do well and cheaply, such as plastic surgery and dentistry.

After reading a first-hand account of one of these swanky Asian destination hospitals, we're actually considering going to have a bit of dental work done ourselves. After all, if you're gonna suffer for your pearly whites, might as well get an international vacation starring UNESCO-recognized lava tubes thrown in for your trouble, right?

Related Stories:
· South Korea Joins Lucrative Practice of Inviting Medical Tourists [NYT]
· Wooridul Spine Hospital [Official Site]
· Jeju Island to Have Foreigners-Only Medical Centers [Korea.net]
· Plastic Surgery Travel: Thailand [Jaunted]

[Photo of Jeju Island: karendotcom127]

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India Welcomes People Who Want to Make Babies

Where: India
October 22, 2008 at 12:00 PM | by | Comments (0)

India's plans for outer space domination might be progressing only slowly, but when it comes to fertility tourism they're doing very well.

For those unlucky souls who have trouble producing children, India is welcoming them and offering fertility treatment such as IVF cycles for a fraction of the price in countries like the United States or Britain.

There are two bonuses here: One, the laws connected to fertility treatments are a lot more lax so you can get pretty much get anything you need; and two, you get an interesting Indian holiday thrown in with your baby-creating experience.

Related Stories:
· Indian Clinics Woo Fertility Tourists [news.com.au]
· Let's Hope the Mayor Isn't Hiding up There [Jaunted]
· Medical Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: flypig]

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First-Person Medical Tourism: How Are the Dentists in Bangkok?

September 4, 2008 at 4:00 PM | by | Comment (1)

Geopolitics junkie and Knife Tricks blogger Paul Karl Lukacs had a bit of an oral revelation the other day, and since it's 2008, he blogged about it. Problem? Infected wisdom tooth. Solution? Surgery at Bumrungrad International Hospital in Thailand.

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Medical Travel: Shrinks Galore in Argentina

August 25, 2008 at 10:00 AM | by | Comments (0)

We know that medical tourism is a growing field: After all, we've contemplated a trip to Hungary to get our teeth fixed or a stay in the Netherlands to cure our nail-biting habit. But our next booking is taking us to Buenos Aires, and here's why.

We've just discovered that Argentina's capital is the "psychoanalysis capital of the world," and a two-hour therapy session will set you back only around $18. They've got more qualified psychologists than anywhere and if you head to the district of Palermo, you'll discover there's a good reason why it's nicknamed "Villa Freud."

Locals suggest that it's the country's long history of instability--war, dictatorship and economic collapse are just a few of the problems--that's made them a nation full of shrinks. We're just happy to have an exotic destination lined up for our next mental breakdown.

Related Stories:
· Get Your Head Tested in Buenos Aires [UK Times]
· Hungary For Some New Teeth [Jaunted]
· Cure Your Nail Biting Habit [Jaunted]

[Photo: Esparta]

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Russian Rubber Tourism

November 8, 2006 at 9:12 AM | by | Comment (1)


Medical tourism, sex tourism, or any of a number of new kinds of tourism: for many people these days, the main purpose of travel is nothing like seeing the Leaning Tower of Pisa anymore. And if you want designer, custom-made condoms--made by a qualified urologist, nonetheless--then Moscow is your destination of choice.

Dr. Pomozov found a niche market when patients complained that they couldn't get condoms that fit them properly. Now he's expanded beyond producing "sized-to-fit" condoms to any kind that customers request:

Some patriotic people ask for them with Kalashnikov guns drawn on them while there are others who want something romantic like Venetian gondolas. We do it all for them.
Just be sure to tell your friends you're heading to Moscow to see Red Square or the slowly decaying body of Lenin.

[Photo: al greer]

Related Stories:
· Russian Doctor Launches Fancy Condoms for Demanding Clients [Mosnews]
· Post-Perestroika Prophylactic [Jaunted]

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Let's Hope the Mayor Isn't Hiding Up There

Where: Romania
June 5, 2006 at 9:15 AM | by | Comments (0)


Eastern Europe's getting popular for medical travel: a nose job, new teeth, or even a tonsillectomy, if that's your idea of a good time. Now, Romania's trying to corner the fertility travel market. There's no first-class IVF clinic or fancy new technology involved: it's as simple as what the locals like to call the "Humping Hill".

In Horea, a small town on the north-western border of Romania, even the local mayor claims that gettin' busy atop this hill is responsible for most of the births in the region. For more than three hundred years, childless couples from near and far have miraculously been able to conceive amongst the bushes above Horea. The friendly mayor has even arranged for extra shrubs and trees to be planted to provide more privacy.

So hurry to Horea: it's just a matter of time before more capitalistic tourism practices kick in and they start charging per thrust.

[Image via 787b/Flickr]

Related stories:
Hungary for New Teeth [Jaunted]
The Humping Hill [UKTV]

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