This is the Health Tourism News roundup for 8 to 28 October 2026, a three-week period.

Vietnam medical tourism scheme

Vietnam’s Ministry of Health sent other ministries a draft prime ministerial decision on its medical tourism scheme for 2026 to 2030 on 21 October, naming eight priority localities: Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Haiphong, Quang Ninh, Da Nang, Hue, Khanh Hoa and An Giang, the last for Phu Quoc, VnEconomy reported. The draft targets at least 20 internationally accredited hospitals by 2030, at least five of them public.

It calls for clearer medical pricing rules, hospital payment guarantees, multilingual publication of service quality and costs, and a review of visa and stay rules for patients and accompanying carers, according to DTiNews. The ministry said the programme must not reduce Vietnamese residents’ access to care.

A major public general hospital in Hanoi recorded 3,871 international patients from more than 120 countries and territories between 1 January 2024 and 10 October 2026, 1,078 of them admitted as inpatients, Viet Nam News reported. China accounted for 804 of the visits and Laos for 659.

India hospital price display

India’s Union Health Secretary, Punya Salila Srivastava, wrote to every state and union territory on 12 October asking them to enforce the display of hospital service rates, and to encourage display of package rates for foreign patients on Medical and Ayush visas, The New Indian Express reported. The requirement already exists under the Clinical Establishments (Central Government) Rules, 2012, in states where the 2010 Act applies. Health is a state subject, so enforcement rests with the states.

Maharashtra issued a government resolution on 16 October requiring private hospitals to display rates in Marathi and English, including special package rates for foreign patients, and directing the authorities responsible for hospital registration to act against establishments that do not comply, The Indian Practitioner reported.

Telangana’s chief secretary, Sanjay Jaju, directed officials on 9 October to set up a single-window medical tourism portal and to prepare project reports before the Telangana Global Summit, the Hindustan Times reported. Officials said Hyderabad has 89 nationally accredited and eight internationally accredited hospitals, with patients arriving mainly from West Asia and Africa.

Indonesia outbound patients and Malaysia capacity

Indonesia’s deputy health minister, Dante Saksono Harbuwono, said on 21 October, citing the coordinating minister, that Rp150 trillion, about 8.5 billion US dollars, leaves the country each year with patients treated abroad, the Indonesia Business Post reported. He said health special economic zones would bring in internationally accredited providers and drug manufacturers to retain part of that spending. No timeline or reduction target was given.

Batik Air’s inaugural direct flight from Batam to Penang landed on 18 October, The Star reported. The Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council brought 21 Malaysian hospitals to its expo in Jakarta on 16 October, VOI reported, after signing an agreement with Maybank to connect the bank’s regional customers with Malaysian healthcare, starting in Cambodia, with Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore named as priority markets for a next phase from 2027.

Sarawak’s medical tourism revenue reached RM203.2 million in 2025, against RM160.2 million in 2024, and RM109.9 million in the first half of 2026 against RM90.6 million a year earlier, the state tourism minister said on 12 October, The Star reported. Medical tourist numbers rose from 64,393 in 2023 to 104,106 in 2025, DayakDaily reported.

Outbound treatment in Bangladesh and Nigeria

Bangladesh’s president, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, said on 27 October that patients travel abroad because of gaps in specialist care, technology and public confidence, and cited a health allocation of Tk 69,409 crore for 2026-27, the largest on record, United News of Bangladesh reported. Three days earlier, an eye hospital in Kunming opened a priority channel for Bangladeshi patients, with document review before travel and follow-up after return, at a ceremony led by Bangladesh’s consul general, Dainik Amader Barta reported.

Nigeria’s vice president, Kashim Shettima, opened a 400-bed university teaching hospital in Maiduguri on 23 October, which Borno’s governor has presented as a measure against medical tourism, ThisDay reported. Lagos health commissioner Akin Abayomi told a Business of Health conference that the state’s 40,000 hospital beds, 35,000 of them private, leave it about 60,000 short, BusinessDay reported.

China international patient packages

Twenty-one Beijing medical institutions launched 40 traditional Chinese medicine packages for international patients, with remote review of records, transparent pricing, direct billing to commercial insurers and payment in several currencies, the city government’s English portal reported on 21 October. Participants in Beijing’s international medical services pilot rose from eight in 2020 to 18, and 86 institutions were connected to international commercial insurers at the end of 2025.

Guangzhou launched GZ Medigo, a booking and payment app for foreign patients, at the 140th Canton Fair on 15 October, the first edition of the fair with a medical services zone, China Daily reported. Chongqing held its first event promoting international medical services on 16 October, attended by consular representatives from six countries and regions, and presented a platform for appointments, visa invitation letters and payment, iChongqing reported.

Gulf medical travel and the West Asia conflict

Airspace closures across West Asia have raised fares on rerouted medical travel by up to 25 per cent, and large Indian hospital networks report falls of 30 to 75 per cent in overseas patient traffic, with flows from Oman, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates down, Travel Daily Media reported on 11 October. Patients are deferring oncology, cardiac and transplant procedures, the report said, while Malaysia is receiving more patients from the Middle East.

Abu Dhabi treated more than 370 patients from abroad with advanced gene therapies between 2020 and 2026, with an estimated medicine value of Dh3.3 billion, on figures disclosed at the Abu Dhabi Future Health Summit on 20 October, Khaleej Times reported. On 26 October a Dubai healthcare holding company and a London medical travel concierge agreed to route patients from the United Kingdom and Africa to the UAE for joint replacement, IVF and dental implants, Zawya reported.

By the Numbers

13 hospitals, 21 ambulatory clinics, 10 dental clinics and 63 spas in the Philippine Department of Tourism’s accreditation network as of September 2026, on department figures.

47.3 billion US dollars, the Philippines’ wellness economy in 2024, 23rd globally, on Global Wellness Institute figures cited by the Department of Tourism.

1.1 billion won in government funding for the Korea Health Industry Development Institute’s foreign patient consultation and aftercare programme from 2023 to 2025, on institute data released by Rep. So Byung-hoon.

13,772 healthcare facilities in the UAE as of the second quarter of 2026, among them 173 hospitals, in the UAE Healthcare Capacity Report by Zavis.

1 billion US dollars a year, the estimated spending of Nigerians on medical treatment abroad, in a 2022 estimate by the West African Health Sector Unions Network.

What to Watch

The Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council and Maybank expect to expand their patient access programme beyond Cambodia from 2027, where results support it.

Vietnam’s draft scheme puts service and site selection in 2026 and 2027, implementation in the chosen localities in 2028 and expansion in 2029 and 2030.

MOA Protocol plans to launch a mobile app and an upgraded card in December 2026, following its 29 September memorandum with the Korea Medical Tourism Promotion Association.