Spaincares outlines medical tourism ambition

Thousands of visitors arrive in Spain every year to undergo health treatments in Spanish hospitals, clinics and medical spas. Spaincares suggests that numbers will double in a few years to 200,000 visitors.

Thousands of visitors arrive in Spain every year to undergo health treatments in Spanish hospitals, clinics and medical spas, but assessing numbers is not easy.

Health tourism organisation Spaincares suggests that numbers will double in a few years to 200,000 visitors, which would suggest 2015 numbers of 100,000. It also estimates that medical tourism brings in 500 million euros, even though the sector is still in an early stage of development. With such rough figures, nobody collecting real ones, and some Spanish hospitals counting tourists as medical tourists, there has to be some doubt about those figures.

Spain is Europe’s preferred holiday destination, a leading health tourism destination and now wants to be a leading international healthcare destination.

The Spanish Government seeks to promote Spain as a premium destination for medical tourism, under the brand Spaincares.

Spaincares is the strategic alliance of the local health and tourism companies including the Spanish Federation of Private Hospitals (FNCP), the Medical Spa Spanish Association (ANBAL), the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Touristic Stays (CEHAT), and the Spanish Confederation of Travel Agencies (CEAV)

Regional health tourism projects such as the Barcelona Medical Agency, Mediterranean Healthcare, and Tourism&Health Costa del Sol, amongst others, are also part of Spaincares along with other business associations related to the matter, like the Association of large enterprises of Health transport (AGETRANS).

The alliance between these institutions and industries strive to offer a global and competitive service at the best possible price and quality. Spaincares offers medical tourists 50 clinics, medical spas and nursing homes as well as a large number of hotels.

Spain has a good health system, warm temperatures and competitive prices, so the country finally sees the sector as a great business opportunity.

Spaincares claims that medical tourism is growing at a rate of 20% per year in Spain, in both revenue and patient volume, although whether these are real numbers or promotional expectation is not known. It also claims that the number of medical tourists going to Spain in the next five years is expected to double, and the sector will generate about 600 million euros in Spain in 2019.

Tourism has always been good for Spain, so when a study published by the country’s Ministry of Health suggested that medical tourists in Spain spend ten times more money than the average tourist, businesses started to wake up.

Spaincares is working hard and has a budget from the Ministry of Tourism with the aim of attracting foreign patients, so generating revenue and employment in Spain.

As well as traditional medical treatment Spain is promoting cell therapy and tissue engineering, in which the body uses its own systems, sometimes with the help of biological material, to regenerate and rebuild the cells of tissue and organs. Regenerative medicine is focused on cures rather than treatments for complex chronic illnesses.

According to “Study of Health Tourism in Spain’ carried out by the Spanish Ministry of Tourism, applications for the musculoskeletal system are seeing great success in terms of regenerative medicine, cell therapy, and even platelet-rich plasma for delaying and avoiding hip and knee prosthesis operations. The treatments are aimed at elderly patients as well as a younger people, such as elite athletes, following the cultivation of stem cells in a special clean room, and said cells are marked so that they become chondrocytes (cells that form joint cartilage). Spain is the European leader for stem cell treatments.

Being aware of the growing interest on the trend of combining holiday breaks with spa, beauty-care, and wellness services, luxurious hotels and coastal resorts have invested in equipping their facilities with a spa or other wellness offer.

Many Spanish multiple holiday resorts have turned into health spas, wellness retreats and spa resorts. Spain has advantages of a warm climate, natural resources, and a strong tourism trade.