Travel abroad to access health treatment, looking for better assistance or more convenient prices: that’s the goal of about 14 million people who, according to PwC consultants, every year travel for sanitary reasons. There aren’t only patients moving for vital treatments, or people willing to save money due to high domestic medical costs. 

The so called ‘medical tourism’ is made of patients who want to combine health with a top-quality assistance, taking advantage – if doctors agree – of luxury hotels for their recovery and, why not, a little bit of shopping. So Germany is a popular destination for neurology and orthopedics, Dubai for plastic surgery and anti-obesity treatments, Singapore for heart surgery and ophthalmology. 

Look at the success of healthcare facilities such as Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, where about 350,000 patients arrive every year from all over the world to be treated, or platforms such as Medigo to define out-of-the-box health travels for any wallet. 

Beyond sanitary operators providing health services, medical tourism is today a global business of about 68 billion dollars, where different organizations are competing including tour operators and hotels, spa and wellness centers, restaurants specializing in dietary regimes, personal assistants and even shopping valets. 

They can be searched via web, but lot of these businesses are leveraging mobile technologies to achieve more visibility and legitimately reach people visiting a certain city for health, or to support someone. With mobile proximity marketing it becomes easier to be localized with a smartphone, interacting with people moving close to a hospital, an health center or any other point of interest. This means, being found exactly where and when it is needed.