There’s something that keeps getting missed in conversations about medical tourism. Everyone wants to talk about hotels, flights, branding, maybe even AI. But here’s the simple truth I’ve learned after years in this industry: you can’t export what you don’t have at home.

If your own citizens are leaving the country for care, how do you expect to attract anyone from abroad?

That’s why I always say: medical tourism can only happen in destinations with strong healthcare systems. And more importantly, to become a medical tourism destination, you need to first become a healthy destination.

Nigeria offers a clear example of the challenge. Every year, over a billion dollars leave the country because patients don’t trust local care. Recently, Rep. Benjamin Kalu proposed the creation of a Specialized Medical Research and Training Centre, aimed at tackling diseases like cancer, kidney failure, and diabetes. The idea is ambitious, modeled after global best practices and built through public-private collaboration. But for now, it's just that - an idea. Whether it will succeed depends entirely on long-term commitment, funding, and follow-through.

Indonesia saw the same drain. Citizens flying to Malaysia, Singapore, even India, spending billions abroad. Now they’ve partnered with Mayo Clinic and are redesigning domestic hospitals to actually meet expectations. Not just to stop the leak, but to finally build something worth staying for. That’s how it starts.

Countries like Malaysia, South Korea, and Turkey didn’t become medical tourism leaders overnight. They built for locals first. They invested in real systems, international standards, proper accreditations, patient experience. They kept their own people in the system, and then opened the doors to the world.

That’s why medical tourism, done right, is the perfect export product. You earn foreign revenue. You increase your quality of care. You retain your talent. You create infrastructure that serves both the citizen and the visitor. Everyone wins.

But if you think you can build a medical tourism industry on top of a crumbling domestic system, you're not building healthcare. You're building fiction.

I’ve seen both approaches. One is rooted in vision and discipline. The other in desperation and PR. Only one of them works.