The German National Tourist Board (DZT) forecasts that health and medical tourism will grow strongly over the coming decades, due to changes in lifestyles and demographics. A survey was conducted by the DZT in which 300 travel experts from 12 countries gave their views. Nearly 40% of them expect growth over the next 20 years in health-related travel activities.
The trend is already visible in Germany, where the number of trips exclusively motivated by health more than doubled between 2009 and 2010. According to the World Travel Monitor, 341,000 Europeans visited Germany for health reasons in 2010, compared to 157,000 in 2009. The country’s popularity is to the credit of Germany’s image as a leading nation in medical standards. The World Economic Forum ranks Germany seventh among 139 countries worldwide for healthcare standards.
Last year DZT introduced its ‘health and wellness travel’ theme at the heart of its international marketing, focusing on ‘spas and health resorts’, ‘wellness and beauty hotels’ and ‘medical tourism’. First results show that the most interested markets for medical tourism in Germany are the UAE, Saudi Arabia and especially Russia. In Russia the DZT created a special team dealing with health tourism requests. The first Health Tourism workshop was also organised with 19 partner organisations in the Arab Gulf States last year. There is also strong interest in medical tourism from some European markets, including the Netherlands, France and Austria.
