A recent report from the Philippine's Department of Tourism stated the number of tourists who visited the Philippines in 2008 to receive medical treatment, a number smaller than people expected. But is that number inclusive and accurate?
The Philippines, along with many other countries that attract visitors seeking health and wellness care, find it difficult to accurately determine the number of such visitors. Part of the problem lies in the fact that many such trips are secondary to another purpose such as a vacation or a wellness treatment. These tourists do not obtain medical tourist visas so the information about their trips may not get collected and counted by a government agency such as the Department of Tourism or the immigration service.
Certain medical procedures that are more complicated medically and more expensive financially
should be the basis for an individual to apply for a medical visitor visa. Such a visa properly represents a person's intention for traveling to another country and allows the government to track participants in the international health travel industry. Medical tourist visas can be counted so that governments are able to track a portion of the individuals engaged in medical tourism but only a fraction of the true number. Many people who should be counted slip through the system.
Stackpole & Associates has the statistical and survey skills to develop and employ survey sampling methodologies to accurately determine the number of health tourists to a region or country. Such a project requires cooperation and coordination between and among government agencies including immigration, tourism and health as well as health care providers and the tourists themselves. This type of survey design, implementation and analysis is one of
Stackpole & Associates' key strengths. Armed with accurate information about international health tourists is vital for strategic planning purposes and to access the value of this industry.
Nuts and Bolts of Medical Tourism Visas
Applying for and obtaining a visitor visa for medical purposes requires an understanding of the policies and procedures in place by various countries. Many countries have modeled their systems after the US system. Prepared based on my more than 25 years experience as an immigration attorney, the article, "
Medical Tourism Visas: Successfully Tackling Immigration Issues" appears in this month's
Medical Tourism Association magazine, issue #8. The article is designed to help individuals, facilitators, travel agents, government agencies and others understand the requirements of the US system and apply some of the lessons learned to applications for other countries.
Medical tourism visas encourage compliance with global immigration laws as well as giving governments a tool to count the number of individuals traveling for international health purposes.
