Vietnam is turning into one of Asia’s more interesting medical tourism bets, and the numbers now justify the attention, Vietnam Briefing reported. Medical tourism revenue is set to climb from roughly US$700 million in 2024 to nearly US$4 billion by 2033, an average annual growth rate of about 18 per cent. Vietnam Briefing reported that medical tourism revenue passed US$850 million in 2025 while holding that 18 per cent pace. The market is small enough to enter early and growing fast enough to reward those who do.

Vietnam medical tourism market trajectory

Three forces drive the growth, Vietnam Briefing reported. Demand for affordable care is rising across Asia, including from richer neighbours whose patients now look abroad for value. A growing middle class inside Vietnam has the means and the will to pay for private treatment. And the return of international travel after the pandemic has restored the flights and the confidence that medical tourism depends on. Vietnam’s edge is that it has held costs down while lifting service quality.

The investment case rests on the gap between a small revenue base and a steep growth curve. An 18 per cent annual rate compounding off US$850 million lets an early operator take share before the established brands of Thailand and Singapore crowd the space. The trade-off is just as plain. Early entry into a market with thinner infrastructure and unsettled rules carries higher execution risk, and investors on a three to five-year horizon are the ones most likely to accept it. The medical tourism revenue is real. So is the distance between a policy target and a working clinic.

Price is the clearest part of the pitch. Healthcare costs in Vietnam run 30 to 50 per cent below those in Thailand and Singapore, according to Ministry of Health data cited by Vietnam Briefing. The services that draw the most international patients are dental care and cosmetic surgery, followed by health checkups, cardiovascular treatment, orthopaedic procedures and fertility treatment. Dental and cosmetic work lead because they pair acceptable quality with pricing that undercuts the premium destinations of Thailand and Singapore.

Dental tourism is the segment to watch. Dental tourism is one of the most price-elastic parts of medical travel, high in volume and simple enough for routine work to be priced and booked in advance. That is why dental care is usually the first thing a rising destination exports, and Vietnam is following the same path. The five drivers of medical travel, better, best, cheaper, faster and unavailable at home, mostly collapse here into cheaper and faster. Cosmetic surgery, which sits across the medical and wellness line, carries the same cheaper and faster logic into higher-margin elective work.

Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Da Nang

Vietnam’s medical tourism is concentrated in three cities, each with direct international flights, Vietnam Briefing reported. Ho Chi Minh City is the largest economic centre and the main medical hub, with public and private providers and a growing apparatus built for international patients. Hanoi, the capital, anchors higher-level treatment and medical research through its older institutions. Da Nang, on the coast, pairs medical services with resort-style convalescence in a leisure setting.

Da Nang shows where health tourism blurs. A convalescent stay in a coastal resort with a checkup attached sits in the hybrid middle of the spectrum, medical in setting and wellness in feel. The risk is the familiar one for any wellness-leaning place: the leisure wrapper can outrun the clinical substance, and a recovery resort still has to answer for outcomes when a real procedure is involved.

Government strategy and accreditation

Policy has moved to match the market, Vietnam Briefing reported. In 2025 the government set out a national plan to knit healthcare, tourism and wellness into one coordinated sector, with closer links between hospitals, travel operators and wellness providers. A new coordinating body, the Vietnam Medical Tourism Alliance, brings providers, tourism operators and policymakers under one roof to promote Vietnamese services abroad and to raise standards at home. Visa policy has loosened in step, with visa-free entry for selected nationalities and an e-visa system covering a broad set of source markets. On quality, the government has set a target: by 2030 at least 15 hospitals, five of them public, should reach recognised international accreditation.

Policy intent and delivery are not the same thing, and Vietnam’s record of uneven provincial rollout is the reason to read the target with care. Accreditation for 15 hospitals by 2030 is a credible signal only if the audits are real and the standards hold after the certificate is issued. Investors should price a project off the actual rollout, the admitting hospitals, the working referral paths and the staffed aftercare, rather than off the announcement.

Where the investment openings are

Vietnam Briefing set out a ladder of entry points by cost and by risk. Scalable, service-led models need the least capital. Dental clinic chains in tourism-heavy spots such as Da Nang, Nha Trang and Phu Quoc benefit from existing demand and a still-fragmented field. Medical travel facilitation is another low-capital entry, built on digital platforms and partner networks, though low barriers have already crowded it, so scale and brand decide who survives. Integrated wellness resorts with on-site checkup centres suit higher-end investors and fit government priorities, at the cost of longer paybacks and complex medical licensing. Greenfield hospital building stays the most capital-heavy and most regulated route, and for most newcomers a joint venture with established local providers is the wiser path.

The facilitation segment deserves a sharper warning than its low entry cost suggests. A crowded field of middlemen competes on visibility, and the pull is to sell placement rather than trust, steering patients to whichever clinic pays for the lead. The facilitators that last in Vietnam will treat clinical quality and honest aftercare as the product.

Risks and the bottom line

Vietnam competes in a region led by Thailand and Singapore, whose reputations, patient networks and infrastructure are already built. At home, regulatory clarity is thin where it matters most for international patients, medical liability and insurance rules are still ambiguous, and infrastructure varies sharply between the main cities and secondary spots. Those gaps shape service consistency, and with it investor confidence.

The headline figure is worth restating. Medical tourism revenue is set to climb from roughly US$700 million in 2024 to nearly US$4 billion by 2033, an average annual growth rate of about 18 per cent, and the medical tourism revenue passed US$850 million in 2025. Vietnam is a promising but unfinished medical tourism destination, and first-mover advantage and execution risk are the same coin. The entrants likely to do well will run thorough due diligence, partner with established local providers to absorb regulatory risk, and track policy by what is delivered in the provinces rather than what is announced in Hanoi. Value here will accrue to operators who fix the dull machinery of accreditation, liability cover and aftercare before they sell the discount.

(With input from Vu Nguyen Hanh.)