This is the Health Tourism News roundup for 22 to 29 July 2026, an eight-day period rather than the usual seven.

South Korea foreign patient volume

South Korea treated 2.01 million foreign patients in 2025, up 71.7 per cent on the previous year, on Ministry of Health and Welfare figures reported by the BBC and CNA. Chinese patients supplied 618,973 of that total, or 30.8 per cent, and Taiwanese arrivals rose 122.5 per cent to about 186,000, on ministry data cited by Maeil Business.

The BBC put the draw as the single-visit comprehensive check-up, with results returned in seven to 14 days under state price regulation.

Seoul city government figures put international arrivals to the capital up 21.3 per cent to 8.23 million in the first half of 2026, with foreign card spending up 56.8 per cent to KRW 5.62 trillion. Medical and wellness services took 24.4 per cent of that spending, rising 63.3 per cent to KRW 908.4 billion. A Seoul startup exhibiting at the Shenzhen medical tourism expo from 16 to 18 July was selling WeChat-based hospital matching, and reported more than 100 new business contacts over the three days.

Thailand longevity strategy

Thailand’s health minister set a three-year target for the country to lead Asia in wellness and longevity travel, VietnamPlus reported on 28 July. Pattana Promphat announced the plan ahead of a global wellness summit in Phuket from 10 to 13 November, which Thailand expects to generate at least THB 300 million. Thai wellness sector revenue reached USD 43 billion in 2024, ninth-largest in the Asia-Pacific region.

Nation Thailand had reported on 25 July that Thailand has invested in genomic medicine and connected health data but lacks a national longevity strategy. Singapore restructured its system around preventive care in July 2023 and had registered about 960,000 people, roughly 40 per cent of its target population, by August 2024. Non-communicable diseases cost Thailand about THB 1.6 trillion a year, or 9.7 per cent of GDP, on 2019 data from a World Health Organization and Public Health Ministry study.

Thailand earned THB 838.73 billion from international tourism in the year to date, which VnExpress put at USD 25.8 billion, on falling visitor numbers. China was the largest source market at 2.86 million, followed by Malaysia at 2.25 million and India at 1.31 million.

Indonesia medical tourism pilot

Indonesia has named 18 hospitals as medical tourism pilots, 15 in the Greater Jakarta area and three in Bali, with a promotional catalogue due in October 2026. The tourism ministry set the scheme out after a 22 July meeting in Jakarta with the health ministry, the Jakarta provincial health and tourism offices and two hospital associations, ANTARA reported. Hospitals that qualify receive promotion, training and fiscal incentives.

Wellness activity accounted for 13.35 per cent of foreign arrivals to Indonesia on 2024 data, and the Global Wellness Institute put the country’s wellness economy at USD 55.77 billion, the largest in South East Asia.

In the same week a private Bangkok hospital told thephilbiznews it had studied where Indonesians go for treatment abroad, found Singapore and Malaysia, and is targeting Indonesia first for partnerships with embassies and foreign chambers of commerce. “Cost is not the only factor,” one of its deputy managing directors said.

Tanzania capacity investment

Tanzania has spent TZS 283 billion over a decade on a government referral hospital in Dodoma and plans a medical tourism zone on university land. “It is no secret that India has made enormous progress,” the chief government spokesperson, Gerson Msigwa, said in a briefing reported by Daily News. Staff numbers have risen from 20 in 2015 to more than 1,000, and the hospital now offers 20 specialist and 18 super-specialist services.

An international clinic opened at the hospital in July 2025 has treated 18,607 patients, of whom 390 came from abroad. Across the hospital, 2,897 patients have come from Burundi and 526 from the Comoros. A TZS 32 billion cancer centre and a TZS 44.9 billion kidney centre are under construction, the second co-financed with Japan’s development agency.

Nigeria insurance coverage

Insurance coverage rather than hospital capacity governs how many Africans travel abroad for treatment, the chief executive of a specialist hospital in Abuja told CNBC Africa at the Africa Social Impact Summit. “There’s too much outbound medical migration,” Brian Deaver said, describing approaches to health maintenance organisations and insurers in Nigeria and internationally so that covered patients can use his facility.

Deaver said the Africa Life Sciences Foundation has raised USD 75 million, largely from Afreximbank, to subsidise care and fund research, and that only USD 75,000 of a separate USD 1 billion Afreximbank allocation for healthcare manufacturing in Nigeria has been drawn in two years.

India medical travel intermediaries

India recorded 507,244 foreign arrivals for medical treatment in 2025, about 5.5 per cent of all foreign tourist arrivals. Industry estimates cited by the Economic Survey 2025-26 put the market at USD 8.7 billion in 2025, rising to USD 16.2 billion by 2030, and medical visas now reach 172 countries, the Times of India reported. The 2026-27 budget proposes five regional medical hubs.

Iraqi patients told Shafaq News they were billed for surgical technology they never saw used. One was quoted about USD 8,000 for spinal fusion, then paid a further USD 1,500 for robotic assistance. “I didn’t see any robotic device in the operating room,” he said. A Baghdad internal medicine specialist told the same outlet that the 95 to 99 per cent success rates advertised by some Indian hospitals function as marketing. India’s tourism ministry recorded 30,989 Iraqi arrivals for treatment in 2025, second only to Bangladesh.

When a fire killed 22 people, most of them foreign nationals, near a Delhi guest house on 3 June, it was translators rather than hospitals or medical travel companies who found beds and rebuilt treatment schedules, ThePrint reported. India counts foreign patients and does not count the translators.

Uzbekistan patient origins

A total of 35,401 foreign nationals travelled to Uzbekistan for treatment in the first half of 2026. National Statistics Committee data reported by Kun.uz put Tajikistan first at 19,096, Kyrgyzstan second at 9,552 and Kazakhstan third at 4,582, with 1,280 from Afghanistan, 772 from Russia and 119 from every other country in the world combined. More than 86,000 people travelled to Uzbekistan for treatment across the whole of 2025.

On 23 July Uzbekistan’s tourism committee and Iran’s ambassador discussed medical travel, direct air links and, in the committee’s account, an Iranian proposal to simplify visas for Iranian travellers, Trend reported.

By the Numbers

  • 2.01 million foreign patients treated in South Korea in 2025, on Ministry of Health and Welfare figures.
  • 35,401 foreign nationals treated in Uzbekistan in the first half of 2026, on National Statistics Committee figures.
  • USD 8.7 billion Indian medical tourism market in 2025, on industry estimates cited by the Economic Survey 2025-26.
  • USD 21.49 billion global medical tourism market in 2025, on Astute Analytica figures.
  • 563 million wellness tourism trips taken in Asia in 2024, against 348 million in Europe, reported by VietnamPlus.
  • USD 47 trillion cumulative global economic loss from five groups of non-communicable diseases between 2010 and 2030, on World Economic Forum and Harvard School of Public Health estimates.

What to Watch

  • Indonesia’s promotional catalogue covering the 18 pilot hospitals is due in October 2026.
  • The Global Wellness Summit runs in Phuket from 10 to 13 November 2026.
  • Uzbekistan’s full-year total will show whether the second half of 2026 matched the 35,401 recorded in the first.
  • Thailand’s health minister has set a three-year horizon, to 2029, for leading Asia in wellness and longevity travel.