Data from Turespaña confirm that Spain is attracting more and more health tourists and that the main source of information for them is the Internet. Regarding the treatments that tourists come to Spain for, they are basically aesthetic and plastic surgery, although depending on the country of origin, they also come to Spain for fertility or assisted reproduction treatments.
Last year 21,868 tourists from all over the world spent 12.1 million euros for health treatments in Spain. And the trend, according to Turespaña, is for this number to grow with an average of between 20,000 and 50,000 patients.
Reasons for choosing Spain
The reasons for choosing Spain are the quality of the treatments and the price of the same, since it is normally lower than in the countries of origin. Being part of the European Union also helps, thanks to the free movement of European citizens between countries. In Europe as a whole, up to nine million people travel every year for health reasons.
The majority of tourists come for plastic and cosmetic surgery treatments, and the most frequent visitors to Spain come from Germany, Holland, England and Sweden. The second important group of health tourists comes from Russia and Arab countries, while some also come from France and Italy, in the latter case looking for fertility treatments that are not available in their countries.
To attract these health tourists, the best way is the Internet. According to Turespaña, 68% of the marketing for these “health” trips is done over the Internet. All these figures are great news for Spanish healthcare professionals and for the whole country in general, because in addition to treatment, this type of tourist spends between six and ten times more than a normal one.