台灣發展醫療觀光產業的探討

醫療觀光產業的總產值約有400億美元，是全球成長最快的產業之一。亞洲的國家如新加坡、泰國、馬來西亞、印度已經成為世界主要的醫療觀光地區。台灣有優良的醫術和醫療照護系統，所以有發展醫療觀光產業的潛力。比較台灣跟亞洲已經發展醫療觀光國家的保健指數，台灣佔有優勢，但是台灣醫療觀光產業的發展卻遠遠落後於這些國家。本研究發現台灣對就醫人數的估計過於保守，但是對醫療觀光產值的估計卻過高。本研究建議台灣必須克服發展的劣勢才能成功發展醫療觀光產業。此外，台灣必須創立自有品牌和公家和私人機構必須共同推展醫療觀光。

關鍵字

醫療觀光；產業分析；優劣分析

並列摘要

The market value of medical tourism industry is around US$40 billion, and the medical tourism industry has become one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Countries in Asia such as Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and India have become major medical tourism destinations in the world. Taiwan has excellent medical skills and health care system, so it has a potential of developing medical tourism industry. In comparison with those medical tourism countries' major healthcare index, Taiwan's has competitive advantage against them; however, Taiwan's medical tourism industry’s development is far behind their developments. This research discovers that Taiwan has underestimated the number of medical tourists, but overestimated the market value of the medical tourism industry. It suggests that Taiwan has to overcome its weakness to develop the medical tourism industry successfully. In addition, Taiwan has to create its own brand and public and private sectors have to market the medical tourism industry in a concerted effort.