Vietnamese American woman combines travel and cosmetic surgery at a cosmetic hospital in Ho Chi Minh City - Photo: HOANG LOC
Many travel agencies are leading this trend with many tour products that promise a balance between experience and health recovery.
Diverse "healing" tours
On June 1, speaking with Tuoi Tre, Ms. Nguyen Thi Nguyen Huong ( Da Nang City) said that this summer she chose a health-balanced trip. The destination was a hot spring and natural mineral water 30km from Hue City.
"I went online to find a tour, there were many different tours but this destination was not too far from my house.
The resort has a yoga center, water meditation and mountain climbing; there is a room specializing in acupressure therapy for me to relax after a stressful working day. This is the first time I have experienced a health-focused tourism service and it is very interesting," said Ms. Nguyen Huong.
According to some travel agencies, tourism associated with medical treatment, aiming at health balance, does not focus on exploration and experience activities in the direction of movement, but focuses on physical and psychological activities.
According to records, many hotels and resorts in Vietnam now consider health care as an added service for guests.
Travel companies are also proactive in building health care products, such as "healing tours", "health tourism packages" or "healthy return tours"...
Increasing trend
According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, before the pandemic, in 2018, 350,000 foreigners came to Vietnam for medical examination and treatment combined with relaxation and spent 2 billion USD. That shows the potential to attract health care tourists with a stay of 3-5 days, high-spending tourists, considering health care as a travel goal.
"The trend of wellness tourism is born with the combination of experiential activities and health improvement based on nature. This is also a type of tourism that is forecast to increase and develop strongly in Vietnam and around the world," the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism forecasts.
In recent years, the Government has directed relevant agencies to implement the policy of promoting the development of health tourism. However, travel agencies admit that there is a shortage of high-quality human resources to meet the increasing demand of tourists, especially international tourists.
According to Ms. Tran Thi Phuong - lecturer of the tourism department, it is necessary to have appropriate policies to encourage units to invest in the field of health care tourism... "It is necessary to create a cooperation mechanism between medical examination and treatment facilities and tourism service establishments to form quality-assured health care product packages," she emphasized.
International healthcare tourism forecast to surge
Health tourism has become a popular and developed form of tourism in some countries such as India, Japan, China, Thailand, and Indonesia.
According to the global wellness economic report released at the end of 2021, the Global Wellness Institute (GWI) forecasted that the growth rate of the wellness tourism industry in the period 2020 - 2025 could reach 21%, surpassing all other areas of the healthcare industry in general.
In 2022 alone, revenue from "healing" tourism is estimated to reach 919 billion USD, accounting for 18% of the world tourism industry.
According to a survey by the World Wellness Tourism Association, 76% of respondents said they were willing to spend more on health-improving trips and 55% would pay more for psychological services or therapy.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/du-lich-cham-soc-suc-khoe-len-ngoi-20250602083149011.htm
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