This is the Health Tourism News roundup for 17 September to 7 October 2026, a three-week period.

Korea medical tourism facilitators

Korea’s Ministry of Justice will certify 112 medical tourism facilitators from 1 October, adding 22, the Korea Times reported. Ninety of the 112 are in the greater Seoul area. Provincial representation rose from 14 to 22 after the ministry lowered performance thresholds for institutions outside the capital and awarded regional bonus points.

Certified facilitators are 1.6 per cent of the country’s 6,698 registered providers and handled about 310,000 foreign patients, 15 per cent of the national total. Medical visas issued through certified channels rose 40 per cent to 9,804 between October 2025 and August 2026.

In a Korea Health Industry Development Institute survey of 7,100 adults in 25 cities across 16 countries, published on 17 September, 61.2 per cent said they would consider travelling to Korea for treatment. Intent was highest in Saudi Arabia, at 90.8 per cent, and Indonesia, at 89.5 per cent, two of five markets where the survey found strong interest but relatively few actual patients. Foreign patients using traditional Korean medicine rose from about 2,500 in 2021 to more than 37,000 in 2025, on Ministry of Health and Welfare figures reported by The Straits Times, and 90 per cent of them were women.

The Korea Medical Tourism Promotion Association signed a memorandum with Fypher, a digital dollar company, to record patient deposits and settlements between hospitals and related businesses on a blockchain, the Korea Times reported on 22 September.

WTO Public Forum health services trade

Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health told the World Trade Organization Public Forum in Geneva on 16 September that its medical investment hub strategy targets economic value of at least 0.5 per cent of GDP, Nation Thailand reported. The strategy covers services, research and health manufacturing. Revenue from foreign patients at Thai private hospitals was about 50 billion baht, on a 2024 Department of Health Service Support survey, and the ministry named Qatar, Kuwait and Oman as particularly valuable Middle Eastern markets.

China, Mexico and Malaysia sat on the same session. Of about 1.28 million international patient visits to China’s leading hospitals in 2025, 413,000 were by patients who travelled specifically for treatment, according to figures cited at the forum by the chairman of a Shanghai hospital group. Citizens of 57 countries are eligible for China’s 240-hour visa-free transit through 65 ports.

Egypt state medical tourism

Egypt Healthcare Authority facilities received 13,370 foreign patients in 2025, against 2,075 in 2022, on data shared with the Japan Times. Its chairman, Ahmed El-Sobky, expects income from those patients to rise from 3.8 million US dollars in 2025 to 6 million in 2026, with almost 8,000 registered through July. The authority runs nearly 400 facilities and plans 5,000 more medical sites over six years, partly through public-private partnerships. There is no single national figure for medical tourism revenue, because spending is not yet collected through one central reporting system, the newspaper reported.

The Future of Egypt for Sustainable Development Authority, a state development authority, launched a medical company at the Egy Health exhibition from 15 to 17 September, Mada Masr reported. Its first phase takes in two armed forces hospitals that also treat fee-paying civilians, and its stated plans include medical tourism services.

Malaysia source markets

Penang received about 285,400 medical tourists and RM601.8 million in medical tourism revenue in the first half of 2026, on Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council data cited by state tourism committee chairman Wong Hon Wai, Malay Mail reported. The figures cover hospitals only. Indonesia is the state’s largest source market.

Close to 70,000 Bangladeshi healthcare travellers visited Malaysia in 2025, generating about RM50 million, up 24 per cent, according to the council, which held its first event in Chattogram on 20 and 21 September after events in Dhaka from 16 to 19 September. In Phnom Penh on 3 and 4 October, the council and Maybank’s Cambodian unit brought 14 Malaysian hospitals to a community run of about 800 people, Bernama reported.

Sarawak’s premier, Abang Johari Openg, said the state airline would start flying between Jakarta and Kuching in October, a flight of one hour and 20 minutes, which he said was shorter than the trip to Kuala Lumpur. Three private hospitals are under construction in the state, the Sarawak Tribune reported.

Inbound medical travel in Colombia, Moldova and Uganda

Colombia recorded 21,034 non-resident foreigners entering for medical treatment between January and August 2026, up 17.6 per cent on the same months of 2025, on Migración Colombia figures released by the travel agents’ association ANATO. Bogotá, Cali and Medellín took 85.3 per cent of them.

Moldova’s exports of medical services exceeded 75 million euros in 2025, an official of the national Investment Agency told the Moldova Health Economy Forum in Chișinău on 1 October, Radio Moldova reported. A clinic director told the same forum that airport capacity was the first constraint on foreign patients, pointing out that Albania, with a similar population, handles twice as many air passengers.

Uganda earned about 26 million US dollars from health service exports in 2024, from about 20,000 foreign patients, in a report by the Economic Policy Research Centre, NTV Uganda reported.

India domestic medical travel costs

An overnight trip for health or medical purposes cost Indian households an average of Rs 32,167, more than any other trip purpose, in the National Statistical Office’s domestic tourism survey for July 2025 to June 2026, released on 23 September, Down To Earth reported, excluding the cost of treatment itself. The survey estimates 31.6 million health visitor-trips, 15.6 per cent of overnight trips across the four purposes measured, and 48.3 per cent of them lasted four nights or more, The South First reported.

Kerala is drafting a law on private hospital charges that would extend to Ayurveda and other traditional medicine centres, after complaints to the health department of excessive fees in the medical tourism segment, Kerala Kaumudi reported on 3 October. A cess on large hospitals with significant foreign investment is under consideration.

At a medical tourism conclave in New Delhi attended by envoys from Zimbabwe, Togo and Seychelles, African countries listed cost transparency, visa length for follow-up appointments and language as the main difficulties their citizens meet in Indian hospitals, The New Indian Express reported on 26 September.

By the Numbers

26.1 billion won spent by foreign patients at traditional Korean medicine clinics in 2025, up 19 per cent on 2024, on Korea Tourism Organisation data.

37.3 per cent of 5,858 survey respondents open to treatment abroad named Korea as their preferred destination, against 33.4 per cent for the United States, in a survey run in November and December 2025 by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute.

26,786 non-resident foreigners entered Colombia for medical treatment in 2025, up 18.4 per cent on 2024, on Migración Colombia figures released by ANATO.

49 overnight health and medical trips per 100 rural households a year, against 22 per 100 urban households, in the National Statistical Office survey for July 2025 to June 2026.

More than 1,000 patient complaints handled by the Baja California Medical Arbitration Commission in 2026 through August, reported by Mexico News Daily.

What to Watch

Korea’s 112 facilitator designations run until 30 September 2027.

Organization of Turkic States health ministers, meeting in Bishkek, proposed working in 2027 on a pilot for electronic medical referrals and discharge summaries between member states.

The European Spa Association and the European Historic Thermal Towns Association hold a joint event in Spa, Belgium, in June 2027, following the Brussels Declaration on European medical spas.