The rise of medical tourism to South Africa

Jonathan Crush, Abel Chikanda, David Sanders and Belinda Maswikwa

Chapter 32 in Handbook on Medical Tourism and Patient Mobility, 2015, pp 323-331 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: South Africa is becoming an increasingly important global destination for medical tourists. Medical tourists fall into two main categories. First, there are conventional North-South medical tourists from Europe and North America who travel to access South Africa’s world-class private medical facilities. The country is marketed by medical tourism operators, facilitators and service providers as a cosmetic surgery destination with a related tourist experience (such as a game safari). It has also become a destination for fertility treatment and drug rehabilitation. More controversially, South Africa has also become a destination for (illegal) transplant and stem cell tourism. The second major category consists of South-South medical tourists from within Africa. In recent years, South Africa has become a destination for middle-class ‘medical tourists’ from other African countries. More important in numerical terms is the use of South Africa’s government-funded public healthcare facilities by medical tourists from neighbouring countries for a wide variety of health needs. This chapter provides an overview of these two major forms of medical tourism to South Africa.

Keywords: Economics and Finance; Politics and Public Policy Social Policy and Sociology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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