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View all search resultsMedical tourism in Indonesia: Can it become a reality?
While it has at least two SEZs for medical tourism, the country still has a long way to go to develop international-standard healthcare infrastructure and the related capacities necessary to maintain it, including human resources, to become a preferred destination among medical tourists.
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Two health workers attend to a patient on April 29, 2025, at Bali International Hospital in the Sanur Health & Wellness Tourism Special Economic Zone in Denpasar. (Antara/Bali International Hospital)
H
ealth Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin’s recent statement about citizens spending substantially on overseas medical treatments has reignited the long-dormant dream of developing the country’s medical tourism.
Speaking at the International Conference on Infrastructure (ICI) 2025, he expressed concern that many middle- to upper-income Indonesians were opting to travel overseas for health care.
“About 1 million to 2 million Indonesians are seeking medical treatment abroad every year, with destinations including nearby Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, as well as [countries as far away as] the United States,” Budi told the global forum on June 11.
The substantial outflow from wealthy Indonesians to healthcare facilities abroad was often overlooked, the minister continued, adding that this figure reached $10 billion, or roughly 1 percent of the country’s gross domestic product of Rp 22.14 quadrillion (US$1.35 trillion) currently.
Budi had therefore appealed to the Tourism Ministry to help redirect middle-class healthcare spending back to domestic facilities by taking action such as developing a robust medical tourism industry, especially in popular destinations like Bali, Batam in the Riau Islands and Labuan Bajo in East Nusa Tenggara.
To assess Indonesia’s competitiveness in medical tourism among regional neighbors, it might be worth exploring the insights from a 2024 white paper published by DKSH Healthcare in collaboration with FrontierView.
Titled “Southeast Asia as a Growth Accelerator for Global Healthcare Firms: Avenues to accelerate growth through expanded patient access”, the white paper gives many good examples of medical tourism hot spots in Asia.
