Tourism to US continues to drop

A drop except for medical and education visits. 

According to the data:

Composition of Monthly Spending (Travel Exports)

• Travel Spending 
• Purchases of travel and tourism-related goods and services by international visitors traveling in the United States totaled $10.5 billion during March 2025 (compared to $11.7 billion in March 2024), a decrease of 10 percent when compared to the previous year. These goods and services include food, lodging, recreation, gifts, entertainment, local transportation in the United States, and other items incidental to foreign travel.
• Travel receipts accounted for 52 percent of total U.S. travel and tourism exports in March 2025.
• Passenger Fare Receipts
• Fares received by U.S. carriers from international visitors totaled $3.1 billion in March 2025 (compared to $3.4 billion in the previous year), down 8 percent when compared to March 2024. These receipts represent expenditures by foreign residents on international flights provided by U.S. air carriers.
• Passenger fare receipts accounted for 15 percent of total U.S. travel and tourism exports during March.
• Medical/Education/Short-Term Worker Spending
• Expenditures for educational and health-related tourism, along with all expenditures by border, seasonal, and other short-term workers in the United States totaled $6.5 billion in March 2025 (compared to $5.9 billion in March 2024), an increase of 9 percent when compared to the previous year.
• Medical tourism, education, and short-term worker expenditures accounted for 32 percent of total U.S. travel and tourism exports in March 2025.

Read my paper on Medical Tourism here.

Medical Tourism revisited

 While I don't really do much on this topic currently some of my papers continue to draw readers.

Sustainable medical tourism in Costa Rica found here.

Sea, sun, sand and …. selecting surgery: an exploration of health, medical and wellness tourist's mobility,

linked here

and a few others if you search.

But for the sake of the blog, watch this video from 2011.

All Trump Hotels to become hospitals for Covid-19

I actually saw this idea on Facebook.  This was my proposed post for April Fools Day.

What a great idea.


Trump is opening all his hotels around the world for the sick and suffering citizens who have been infected by the virus.  Trump Tweets (@thealmostrealRump) "that it is about time folks get to experience 800 thread count sheets and double ply toilet paper.  That is the least I can do."

And better yet, it is a tax deduction for his royal family!

Medical Cannabis

Due to the Covid-19, restaurants in Massachusetts can only provide delivery or carryout.  No sit down meals.

For Medical Cannabis (and recreational) you must pre-order to pick up.

Medical Tourism in Mexico

Haven't done much on Medical Tourism for a few years, but was informed on this need Infographic about Mexico and thought I would share (especially since the two NBC channels on cable show about five hours of Olympic programming daily).  NBC repeats content between the two stations, blaaaa.

Anyway here is Mexico.

Medical students cheating to get degrees for Medical Tourism

"Medical degrees are highly sought after in Thailand, where doctors can make small fortunes in a private sector that has become one of the world's treatment hubs."

For another link to this story, see this.

Medical Tourism Destinations Threatened by Doctor's Cheating

Seems another story of medical students cheating on exams has a potential impact on the lucrative medical tourism business!  Recent news reports from SE Asia, one the world's most popular regions for medical tourism, highlights the "mission impossible" tactics used by wanna' be doctors facing the mounting pressures to be doctors and serve the tourists arriving daily.  Another report  identifies the same damaging fact.  Seems these students are willing to pay upwards to $30k to pass the test in order to offer medical care for the fast growing medical tourism industry.

Just think about this as you travel half way around the world to get a cheap nose job!

Sea, Sun, Sand and …. Selecting Surgery: an Exploration of Health, Medical and Wellness

We recently published an exploratory investigation into travel behavior or health, medical and wellness tourists found in Human Geographies.  It reflects the findings of a sample of actual tourists and the motivations behind the travel to a foreign destination for care. I need to also credit my co-author Wen-Tsann Yang (Feng-Chia University) and fellow Ph.D. graduate of the Geography Department at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale for his efforts in this research.

The Abstract:

Mass tourism facilities depend on repeat visitors as well as attracting new first time tourists. As these traditional sun and sand holiday destinations mature, tourism promoters are bundling opportunities to attract a different kind of tourist. Since many of these resorts are all-inclusive facilities and include a Spa, one potential expansion may be to market to health, medical or wellness tourists. Geographic research in travel and tourism has found that individuals either repeat visits to the same destination or diversify their choices. This paper highlights the decision-making process of tourists and how it may be related to the niche market of health, wellness, and medical tourism. It uses data from a survey that gathered the travel patterns and motivations, and socio-demographics of medical tourists. Consumers who exhibit different travel behavior rank hospital accreditation and American hospital affiliation more important than those who repeat travel behavior - See more at: http://www.humangeographies.org.ro/volume-9-issue-2-2015/921-abstract#sthash.bJDUFRpD.dpuf

Medical Tourism Survey

The Medical Tourism Association is sponsoring a survey.

Please visit this link to participate. (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/53WHBX9).

Link is good until tomorrow Friday the 4 April!

A different kind of medical tourism

In this case, both the patient and the doctor travel overseas for a procedure.

In this case, despite the $40,000 bill, it was an issue of timeliness.  See the article.

Medical Tourism, edited by C. M. Hall

Medical Tourism: The Ethics, Regulation, and Marketing of Health Mobility
 edited by C. Michael Hall

is available now from Routledge.

Part 1: Introductory Context 1. Medical and Health Tourism: The Development and Implications of Medical Mobility
Part 2: Regulation and Meta-Ethics 2. Quality, Safety and Risk in Medical Tourism 3. The Four Modes of Medical Tourism: Economic, Social and Institutional Impediments 4. Medical Tourism, Xenotourism and Client Expectations: Between Bioscience and Responsibilization 
Part 3: National and Regional Policy, Regulatory and Competitive Settings 5. Impacts of Health Policy on Medical Tourism in Germany 6. Thermal versus Surgical Medical Tourism in Hungary: Reconciling Public and Private Sector Policies 7. Health Spa Tourism in the Czech and Slovak Republic 8. Macao’s Cross-border Medical Tourism: A New Way Forward? 
Part 4: Branding, Markets & Promotion 9. Branding Medical and Health Tourism Services: An Analysis of Members of Public Health Insurers in Germany 10. An Investigation of Korean Health Tourists’ Behaviour: Benefit-sought, Brand Equity, and Intention to Visit 11. Medical Tourism in Asia: Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and India 12. Claiming ‘Cultural Competence’: The Promotion of Multi-ethnic Malaysia as a Medical Tourism Destination 
Part 5: Conclusion: The Contested Spaces of Medical Tourism 13. The Contested Futures and Spaces of Medical Tourism


for more info, visit this link.

Medical Tourism Bibliography breaks 250 mark

Selected Bibliography for Medical Tourism

(The Most Comprehensive Bibliography on the subject on the web)

(Last update 8 July 2011, n=251 references and counting!)

Abstracts available for Changing World of Coastal, Island and Tropical Tourism

We now have the abstracts posted for the Changing World of Coastal, Island and Tropical Tourism conference to be held in Martinique, French West Indies on 27-29 January 2011. The main website for the conference is found at:
http://www.geog.nau.edu/igust/fwi/index.html and from there you can find the abstracts. Our paper is titled:
"Sea, sun, sand and ... Selecting Surgery, an exploration of Medical Tourist Travel Behavior".

While the call for papers has passed, I can't think of a better place to be in January, this statement written as I look out my home office window at the freezing rain.

Medical Tourism

This week's lecture will be on Medical Tourism. We established a web presence last year at

http://www.wsc.ma.edu/medicaltourism/ where tourists could access a survey. We posted some of the basic findings on sustainable medical tourism, but have taken the link down to collect more data. One paper has been published on the USDA-FS website and another paper is currently under a second review for Tourism Review.

Check out the bibliography on the website to see the variety of papers out there on the subject.

http://www.wsc.ma.edu/medicaltourism/medtourbib.htm. Over 212 and counting! If you find a web accessible paper, please send me the details!

Vienna ISSRM July 2009

While I tend to like to travel to more rural destinations, Vienna is a fantastic city. I had the ISSRM conference there last summer where I presented research on Medical Tourism (topic for a lecture on 22 April 2010).

The photo was shot on one of my walks around the downtown area and is the Staatsoper Opera House. I didn't get a chance to see an opera, but did observe waltzing lessons and had a dinner in a Palace one night. Our hosts put on a great spread. Oh yeah, the paper went well too.

I'd highly recommend Vienna for a trip.