Number of medical tourists to Malaysia 2014-2023
In 2023, about 1.08 million people traveled to Malaysia for medical and healthcare purposes. Medical tourism has increased in Malaysia since 2014, but the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions in 2020 and 2021 caused a significant decrease in the number of medical tourists.
The emerging leader of healthcare
Malaysia is among other countries in the Asia-Pacific region such as Singapore, Thailand, and South Korea that have promoted the medical tourism industry. In 2005, the Ministry of Health (MoH) Malaysia established the Malaysian Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) to promote healthcare travel. To support its ambition to be a medical tourism hub, Malaysia focused on developing its medical sector, by increasing the number of registered doctors and encouraging industrial collaboration between its private and public sectors, among others. The MHTC was created as a separate public sector entity in 2011, which gave it greater freedom to regulate the market. Since then, there had been significant growth in the medical tourism revenue.
The Malaysian Health Travel brand
The industry development and promotions, both domestic and abroad, have increased their international patient base and enticed foreign investment. The collaboration of the MHTC with Air Asia Indonesia is one such initiative that aimed at promoting metropolitan cities like Penang as the medical tourism center of the nation. The National Health Institute established the International Patient Center (IPC) to assist traveling patients with immigration services, visa, and health insurance transfers to make Malaysia the preferred destination for healthcare. Through this, Malaysia could see a steady development in the industry, which was reflected in the increasing value of the tourist expenditure for medical purposes, among others.
