Advantages Of Medical Tourism

1.1 Research Objectives
Medical tourism is regarded as a reputed area of tourism industry, which can be seen from an increasing number of IMT travel out of their host countries for treatment purpose each year and Asian countries particularly India, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand have now become alternative destinations for international tourists. The research focuses on the decision of contributing Thailand as a medical tourism destination.
It is generally known that Thailand‘s economy depends largely on tourism and its related industries (Tourism Authority of Thailand, 2010). Originally, the country has established itself as a destination that provides value for money, entertainment, beaches, and MICE travel (meetings, incentives, convention, and exhibition) for international tourists, but Thailand these days is supposed to find new alternative areas of tourism as the competitive advantages have recently begun to decline according to the emergence of new destinations with more pristine environments and local communities—as shown by the decreasing average daily expenditure of international tourists to Thailand (Tourism Authority of Thailand, 2010). As a result, Thailand tries its best in retaining itself a world-class destination by moving into a new tourism area called “medical tourism”.
Even Though medical tourism can give a great impact to Thailand particularly in term of revenue generation, which gradually increases up to USD$ 430 million in 2012 (Ministry of