Chinese travelers took full advantage of the 8-day long Golden Week holiday to globe trot. Many though opted not to sightsee, but rather to take the opportunity to improve their health. Online travel booking site Ctrip revealed 500,000 Chinese travelled overseas for medical-related services in 2016, a five-fold jump year-on-year.

 

Amongst the most popular destinations for the Chinese to visit was Thailand, recording over nine million trips from China so far this year. But database provider Euromonitor found that Indonesia posted the highest tourism volume growth of 30% so far in 2017. A long-time favorite of Australians, Bali became a hot spot for Chinese travelers -- their numbers surpassed the Aussies for the first time ever reaching 150,000 arrivals, becoming the second most visited island by Chinese tourists after Phuket. And that’s even with the imminent danger of Mount Agung threatening to erupt at any moment.

 

Ctrips’ findings showed that the average spending on medical tourism is around ten times greater than regular outbound Chinese travel. “Most of my patients are very successful professionals… they are over-worked, overfed, undernourished, and unfulfilled,” says Kim as she profiles the typical guest that checks into the retreat. “We simplify the experience of health to make it approachable.” 

 

The statistics from Ctrip also concluded that medical care services ranked fourth among top 10 leisure activities that the site has to offer -- whether for general health exams, early cancer screening, genetic-testing or cosmetic surgery which is extremely popular for affluent females traveling to South Korea. Japan’s cancer prevention and early detection programs are also amongst the costliest, but the high price tag doesn’t stop the Chinese from coming. Medical tourism services have now extended to treatments such as placenta anti-aging, living cell therapy, hepatitis c health care and physical therapy.

 

As analysts declare Indonesia as the “next wave” destination to watch, the local government is targeting 10 million Chinese tourists by 2019. The country is creating three additional tourism focused economic zones and are in the process of courting foreign investors to build more hotels, resorts, and entertainment facilities.