Title: Health tourism in Asia: definition framework, issues, and way forward

Authors: Brian Kee Mun Wong; Ghazali Musa

Addresses: Faculty of Business, Design and Arts, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus, Kuching, 93350, Malaysia ' Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia

Abstract: While studies on health tourism gain popularity among tourism researchers, the definition of health tourism remains a topic to deliberate, and no consensus has been reached so far. The paper opines on the domains of health tourism and proposes the integrative nature among the domains that develop the holistic health tourism experience. Health tourism's growth sparks societal concerns regarding social and economic aspects. Industry 4.0 technologies, like wearables, Internet of Thing (IoT), AI, robotics, VR, etc., are reshaping the healthcare sector, intensifying the commercialisation of health tourism in Asia. The paper proposes the definition framework of health tourism based on Asian contextualisation, discusses the current issues of health tourism, the cautious use of published health tourism revenues data, and describes the way forward of the sector driven by technology advancements. The three-prong implications of the paper are discussed.

Keywords: health tourism; medical tourism; TCM; traditional and complementary medicine; wellness tourism; critical realism; SLR; scoping literature review.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTP.2025.150638

International Journal of Tourism Policy, 2025 Vol.15 No.6, pp.475 - 489

Received: 03 May 2024
Accepted: 12 Aug 2024
Published online: 18 Dec 2025 *

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