Experts speaking at this week’s Healthcare Travel Exhibition & Congress forecast that Asia’s medical tourism market would remain buoyant due to affordability and higher standards of healthcare.

In the past few years Asia has positioned itself as a major medical tourism market, with Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, India and Singapore adopting state-of-the-art medical technologies to improve patient care.

Asia’s healthcare standards and technology adoption will only continue to improve, subsequently making it a foremost driver of medical tourism in the years to come, with the worldwide gross medical tourism revenue forecast to grow from US$56 billion to US$100 billion by 2012.

"Buoyed by the success stories of earlier waves of medical tourists, consumers, insurance companies as well businesses fully recognise the reliability and affordability of going overseas for medical procedures” said Andrew Keable, Divisional Director, Informa Life Sciences.

“Patients who choose to undergo treatments in Asia can pay just 10% of the cost of comparable treatment conducted in developed countries like the United States or United Kingdom.

“This differential cost, coupled with today's sophisticated travel industry, provides an excellent catalyst to the growth of medical tourism.”

The Healthcare Travel Exhibition & Congress 2009 is being held at Fairmont Hotel, Singapore.