Medical tourism is the practice of scheduling a trip to another country with the purpose of the trip focusing on obtaining medical care or treatment. Medical tourism marketing is the newest marketing trend by travel agencies to plan this trip and build tourism packages for customers to get the most of their trips for medical treatment. Elective medical procedures are the main focus of these tourism trips. Treatment such as joint replacement, dental surgery, some cardiac surgery and cosmetic surgeries are the most common medical procedures. The inclusion of more leisure activities on the trips has been one of the new improvements that have been made as a result of more medical tourism marketing and competition for these customers.

Traveling for medical treatment is not something new; in fact it dates back to the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that Asklepios, the god of healing, looked favorable on those that traveled to Epidauria, a small territory on the Saronic Gulf. People would travel from all over the Mediterranean to this location for medical treatment, making Epidauria the first destination known mostly for its medical tourism.

Later, throughout Europe and other locations, spa towns were popular locations for people to visit that had some kind of medical condition. These towns with their special mineral waters, which could treat a wide range of disease from gout, to breathing problems and liver disorders, were the places to go. Special sanitariums with doctors that specialized in using these healing waters could be found scattered throughout the countries.

Now these medical tourist can come from just about anywhere in the world; however most are from the more financially wealthy countries, those being the United States, Canada, Japan, the Middle East and western Europe. The increase of popularity has been affected by the a number of factors including the high cost of health care, the long waiting times for certain elective procedures in most of these countries along with the medical advancement, standardization of health care in other developing countries and the availability of increasing options in international travel.

Countries through the Far East and Pacific Rim have become popular destination for medical tourism. Places like India, Brunei, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand are leading the way in this region. In the Middle East, travel to Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Jordan and the UAE are growing in popularity with increases travel to South Africa and New Zealand for a wide range of medical treatments.

Countries in South and Central America are becoming popular places not only for their tropical rain forests but also for cosmetic surgery. Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina boast an increasing number of skilled and experienced plastic surgeons. In fact in a recent study, it was determined that 1 out of every 30 Argentineans have had some form of plastic surgery. These procedures are also increasing in popularity in Bolivia and Colombia. Colombia is more recently also increasing the level of care and skills in the areas of transplant and cardiovascular surgery.

The medical tourism field is one that will only increase in popularity over time. As more and more companies begin to focus on this sector of travel the need for effective medical tourism marketing will also increase. There will also be an increase of focus on the value added to the travel including follow-up care, case management and other extra features.