Outward Medical Tourism: A Case of UAE

Abstract

Medical tourism is the travelling of people to a different place to receive treatment for a disease, an ailment, or a condition, or to undergo a surgical procedure. It is a form of international trade in services. Medical tourism allows some countries to export their products and services to other countries and improve their balance of payments. It also gives many advantages to the travelers, such as getting high quality of medical treatment that is not available in their home country or to get it at a low cost. As a part of its economic diversification strategy, the UAE has invested heavily in establishing world-class medical facilities, standard, with high treatment standards for citizens as well as for people from outside especially from the middle-east and Africa, who come to UAE on the medical tourist visas, which is a paradox. The study is of outward tourism is set to study in terms of numbers, ailments, procedure and destination lists and efficiency. The study found many interesting trends of medical tourism in the outward of the UAE, some of these trends are positive and are in need to be boosted by health authorities to build a better and profitable healthcare industry in the country. In sum, the study is a study of the dynamics of outward medical tourism with the help of a sample of 232 medical tourists from UAE to other countries. It is found that there is a rising trend of outward medical tourism which can be well taken care by raising the status of medical and treatment facilities in the UAE to the global level.