The development of health tourism in China 2026
Trends for 2026-2030
Keywords:
, Health Tourism, Healthcare Management, Cross-border healthcare, ChinaAbstract
China seems to be undergoing a transformation and transitional time from a source market to a destination in the medical and health tourism industry. After the outburst of #Chinatravel on social media and the increase of inbound tourists into China in the past few years, currently, the new trend on fire can be China Health Travel.
From different dimensions varying from the national level to a patients' perspectives, what makes China a great Medical and health tourism destination?
China’s “opening-up” policy to the world has laid the groundwork. Drastic changes are now reshaping our world and our times in ways never before seen. The landscape of international economic cooperation and competition is changing profoundly, and global economic governance systems and rules are undergoing major adjustments, bringing us to a critical crossroad in global development.
Due to a natural layering of consumption in the industry, a part of upscale Chinese patients may choose to go abroad for outbound medical and health tourism. It is estimated that approximately 800,000 Chinese people travel abroad each year to for medical treatment, which labels China as one of the major source markets in the world for medical tourism. Besides the openness of welcoming foreign investment and allowing almost 1 million Chinese people every each to go abroad for medical treatment, another essential sign may come from the visa-free policy and accelerated visa application procedure. By the end of 2025, based on the data issued from the National Immigration Administration of China, China has extended its visa-free entry or transit policy to 134 countries until end of 2026 and a 240-hour transit visa-free policy for 55 countries, a unilateral visa-free policy for 50 countries, and has reached bilateral visa exemption agreements with 29 countries.
The article explains the current trends of Health Tourism in China.
References
Qiushi Editorial Department, Understanding and Advancing High-Standard Opening Up Updated: 2025-11-14. https://en.qstheory.cn/2025-11/14/c_1140035.htm
United Family Healthcare. https://ufh.com.cn/en/about-us/
New Frontier. https://www.new-frontier.com/en/leadership-2-2/
Perennial Holdings. https://www.perennialholdings.com/our-presence.html
National Immigration Administration of China. https://www.nia.gov.cn/
LI Wei, , ZHOU Pu, CHEN Hong, XU Mingfei, GU Jingwen. Journal of Health Development and Policy Research: Strategies for public hospitals to develop international medical tourism 2025, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (5) : 573-578. https://hdpr.shdrc.org/CN/10.12458/HDPR.202409087
Mingyuan Cai, Liang Zhou, Daihui Gao, Dan Mei, Bo Zhang, Wei Zuo and Qing Yan, Frontiers in Pharmacology. 02 March 2023. A national survey of individualized pharmaceutical care practice in Chinese hospitals in 2019. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-grade-ownership-and-type-of-hospitals-in-China-Grade-of-hospitals-According-to-the_fig1_368936149
Matej Mikulic, Dec 17, 2025. Statista. Hospitals and healthcare facilities in China - statistics & facts. https://www.statista.com/topics/10723/hospitals-and-healthcare-facilities-in-china/
AmieinChina. RedBook. http://xhslink.com/o/RVUp0UeQ1r
Nature Index. https://www.nature.com/nature-index/institution-outputs/generate/all/global/all
Xandra Ellin and Aron Keller, James Shield, Travis Evans, China Collins, The Global Story: Is social media dead? 11 November 2025. https://www.bbc.com/audio/play/w3ct71cv
World Economic Forum. What is ‘AI slop’? https://www.weforum.org/videos/ai-slop/
Danny Bradbury. Malwarebytes Labs. Hi, robot: Half of all internet traffic now automated. April 16, 2025.
https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2025/04/hi-robot-half-of-all-internet-traffic-now-automated
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 The Publisher
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Start-up >