Dubai’s move to streamline processes for medical tourists will replace a “fragmented” system partly managed by patients with one in which healthcare providers can organise the whole process, analysts have said.
They told The National that the initiative, sometimes referred to as a smart medical visa, should strengthen Dubai’s status as a leading global centre for medical tourism. The move stems from the recent signing of an agreement between the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) and the General Directorate of Identity and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai that covers everything from applying for a medical visa to completing treatment.
Through the initiative, the two organisations’ digital systems will be linked and members of DHA’s Dubai Health Experience portal will more easily be able to submit visa applications on a patients’ behalf.
“For patients, it shifts the experience from planning a complex trip to accessing a co-ordinated care journey, which is far simpler and more reassuring,” said Manish Jain, deputy chief executive of Aster and Access Clinics in the UAE and Bahrain.
He said that, previously, patients from abroad had to apply for visas while co-ordinating with hospitals for appointments and documentation. But with the smart medical visa, he said hospitals would be able to initiate and manage the visa for the patient.
Further simplification comes from documentation and approvals being digitally integrated, and companion visas and visa extensions becoming part of the same system. “This removes multiple touchpoints and significantly reduces uncertainty and waiting time,” Mr Jain said.
He added that, compared with most other major healthcare tourism destinations, Dubai would now be “ahead in administrative simplicity”.
Growing in numbers
Medical tourism in Dubai has grown rapidly, with 691,478 medical tourists visiting the emirate in 2023, more than twice as many as the number recorded seven years earlier.
In 2023, they spent a reported Dh1.03 billion ($280.4 million) directly on health care and a further Dh2.3 billion on other services. Other emirates attract medical tourists too, although Dubai is the largest player.
The large population who can fly to the UAE in five to six hours and who are able to afford better quality services has helped the sector to grow.
Vikas Kharbanda, a UAE-based partner and healthcare and life sciences practice lead at the consultancy Arthur D Little Middle East, said that when it came to healthcare tourism, Dubai had “already matured beyond an emerging market”.
“It’s been probably about 15 to 18 years since Dubai has been working on this strategy,” he said. “It takes a certain amount of time to build a degree of confidence, build the market, build the brand and build the infrastructure and that’s really come to the fore in the last five to eight years. It’s really taken off.
“I think what Dubai has managed to do [in terms of] branding, clinical quality, clinical services and the overall orchestration … that goes into establishing a strong medical tourism market, has been clearly successful.”
Globally medical tourism has been growing fast, driven by factors such as high prices and long waiting times in home countries.
Cashing in
Persistence Market Research forecasts that worldwide turnover in the sector will expand from about $34.5 billion last year to $115.9 billion by 2032, which represents growth of around 18.9 per cent a year.
Fortune Business Insights predicts even more rapid expansion, estimating that this year the sector will be valued at $46.8 billion and, thanks to 23.3 per cent annual growth, will reach a turnover of $250.0 billion in 2034. Europe, it said, accounts for about 36.5 per cent of the market.
Mr Kharbanda said the city was particularly strong in orthopaedics, aesthetics, which includes plastic surgery, and diagnostics, such as when people seek a second opinion on complex neurological conditions. Dentistry also attracts many.
“Dubai has created a niche for itself in terms of the high-end, experience-led medical tourism market in specific domains,” he said.
It is less of a destination, Mr Kharbanda said, for oncology, which typically requires complex ongoing treatments.
Mr Jain predicted, however, that oncology could grow, alongside other specialities such as cardiology and reproductive medicine. “Growth will be strongest in planned, high-value care segments, where patients are willing to travel,” he said.
He added that providers with dedicated teams to help international patients, and that strengthen engagement with patients before arrival, such as through virtual consultations and case reviews, would benefit most from the new administrative regime.
Although Dubai has seen growth in the numbers of medical tourists, the emirate is “definitely not competing on price” with healthcare tourism destinations such as Turkey or India with a reputation for lower costs, Mr Kharbanda said.
“For the clinical outcomes and the end-to-end orchestration of the patient journey, I think it does offer good value for money,” he said.
Among the higher-end medical tourism destinations that Dubai competes with is Singapore, although Mr Kharbanda said the Asian city state had a different emphasis, being popular for very complex cases.
Demand in Dubai is spread between Asia, the Gulf and other Arab countries, and Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
While Mr Kharbanda said some providers in the UAE had focused solely on medical tourism, the cyclical nature of demand over the course of a year made this difficult to sustain.
As a result, he said, healthcare companies in Dubai that cater to inbound medical tourists typically also provide services to UAE residents.
This means, Mr Jain said, that the growth of healthcare tourism in the UAE benefits residents, as it attracts top clinicians, increases specialised services and encourages investment in advanced medical infrastructure and technology.
“In most cases, growth in medical tourism leads to better access and improved quality for residents, not reduced access,” Mr Jain said.
The conflict between the US and Iran, during which Tehran launched missile and drone attacks on the UAE, has “definitely affected the market”, according to Mr Kharbanda.
“But [given] the degree of resilience Dubai has demonstrated in the past on many occasions, our view is that the market is likely to recover rapidly,” he said, adding that the sector could bounce back by end of the year or early next year.