| Independently reported | |
| Bangladeshi medical tourists to India | 120,388 in 2015, 210,142 in 2016 and 221,751 in 2017, the last being 55 per cent of India’s total[1] |
|---|---|
| Share of Indian medical visas in recent years | More than 70 per cent, and about 70 per cent in 2024[2] |
| Change in 2024 | Visas to Bangladeshi nationals fell 39 per cent against 2023[2] |
| Cause recorded | India indefinitely closed its visa application centres in Bangladesh in August 2024, issuing visas only for medical and emergency purposes[2] |
| Effect on India’s national total | India’s medical visas fell 22 per cent in 2024, from a record 597,000 in 2023 to 464,000, attributed mainly to this[2] |
| Bangladeshi count of outbound patients | No Bangladeshi government figure located in any source[1] |
| Regional leaders for context | Thailand about 1 million visitors a year, India 500,000, Singapore 350,000[4] |
| This entry has no primary-record band. Every figure describes Bangladeshi patients as counted by India, reported through trade and data journalism rather than read in an Indian government publication, and no Bangladeshi government statistic was located. Travel to destinations other than India is not covered by any figure here. No typical cost range is given. | |
Medical tourism in Bangladesh is the largest single national outbound flow documented anywhere in this series. Bangladeshi patients accounted for 55 per cent of all medical tourists recorded entering India in 2017 and more than 70 per cent of Indian medical visas in recent years. In August 2024 India closed its visa application centres in Bangladesh, and visas to Bangladeshi nationals fell 39 per cent, pulling India’s national total down 22 per cent with them.
The scale
An analysis of Indian Bureau of Immigration and Ministry of Tourism figures recorded Bangladeshi medical tourists to India at 120,388 in 2015, 210,142 in 2016 and 221,751 in 2017, the last representing 55 per cent of India’s total of 495,056 that year. Afghanistan was second at 55,681, then Iraq at 47,640, the Maldives at 45,355 and Oman at 28,157.[1]
Indian Ministry of External Affairs medical visa data puts Bangladesh at more than 70 per cent of medical visas issued in recent years and about 70 per cent in 2024. India’s medical visa series ran from about 38,000 in 2012 to about 376,000 in 2019, fell to under half that in 2020, recovered to 338,000 in 2021 and over 400,000 in 2022, and reached a record 597,000 in 2023.[2]
A single country supplying 70 per cent of a destination’s medical visas is a degree of concentration without parallel in the material surveyed here. It means Indian medical travel statistics are substantially a measure of Bangladeshi patient behaviour, and that Indian hospitals serving international patients are, in the aggregate, serving one neighbour.
What happened in 2024
India’s medical visas fell 22 per cent in 2024, from the 2023 record of 597,000 to 464,000. The decline is attributed mainly to political unrest in Bangladesh: in August 2024 India indefinitely closed its visa application centres in the country and issued visas only for medical and emergency purposes. Visas to Bangladeshi nationals fell 39 per cent against 2023. Other factors listed are rising airfares, global economic challenges and visa restrictions.[2]
The arithmetic is worth following, because it shows how exposed the destination was. A 39 per cent fall in one source country produced a 22 per cent fall in the national total, which is what concentration at 70 per cent implies. India’s medical travel sector lost roughly a fifth of its recorded volume because of a political event in a single neighbouring state.
The same dataset records what a harder closure looks like. Afghanistan was a significant share of Indian medical visas until 2021, and then only one medical visa was issued across the whole of 2022 to 2024, after India invalidated previously issued physical visas following the Taliban takeover. The Afghan figure in 2017 had been 55,681 medical tourists, the second largest source.[2][1]
What the numbers do not tell us
These figures count Bangladeshi patients arriving in India. They do not say what those patients travelled for, what they paid, what happened to them, or what they did after August 2024. A patient who needed cancer treatment in 2024 and could not obtain a visa did not stop needing it, and the data records only the disappearance of the arrival.
Nor do they cover other destinations. Bangladeshi patients also travel to Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and India’s competitors further afield, and no figure for any of that was located. The 2024 closure would be expected to redirect some share of the flow rather than extinguish it, and no source examined here measures whether it did.
One caveat applies to the Indian series itself. The 2017 analysis notes that earlier Indian figures were based on medical visa numbers, but that not all medical tourists apply for medical visas, which is why the later series uses total medical tourist numbers instead. The two measures are therefore not interchangeable, and the 2024 figures are visa counts while the 2017 figures are arrival counts.[1]
The same analysis records that no official Indian figures exist for medical tourism income, and that government estimates of 3 billion United States dollars in 2015 rising to 9 billion by 2020 imply about 12,800 dollars per tourist, which it calls unrealistic for a low-cost medical tourism destination. That judgement bears directly on Bangladesh, since most of those tourists were Bangladeshi and travelling on the strength of price.[1]
Bangladesh as a destination
No figure for foreign patients treated in Bangladesh was located in any source consulted. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists cosmetic surgery, dental care, cancer treatment, fertility treatment and organ transplantation as the procedures most often sought abroad, notes that some highly resistant bacteria and fungi appear more common in some countries where patients seek care, and states that accreditation does not guarantee a good outcome.[3]
A 2015 briefing by an economist in the United States International Trade Commission’s Office of Industries, published as the author’s own views and not the Commission’s, names the leading global providers as Thailand with about 1 million visitors a year, India with 500,000 and Singapore with 350,000, against a global estimate of roughly 3 million patients travelling for healthcare each year. On that global figure, Bangladeshi travel to India alone would have been around 7 per cent of all medical travel in the world in 2017.[4]
Limits of the evidence
No Bangladeshi government statistic was located: not a count of residents travelling abroad, not a figure for money spent abroad on treatment, not a hospital capacity series. Every figure here is Indian, reaching this entry at second hand through trade and data journalism rather than from an Indian government publication read directly. Visa counts and arrival counts are mixed across years and are flagged where they are. Travel to destinations other than India is unmeasured here. Nothing has been estimated, and the one calculation offered, Bangladeshi travel as a share of the global figure, combines two sources and is identified as such.
See also
- Source markets in medical tourism, and the most concentrated one recorded
- Medical tourism in Pakistan, which fell while Bangladesh rose
- Medical tourism in Nepal, the neighbouring flow the same data cannot see
- Medical travel for unavailable treatments, the need a visa closure does not remove
- Medical tourism revenue, and an implied per-patient figure called unrealistic
References
- International Medical Travel Journal. IMTJ analysis of 2017 India medical tourist data. Published 20 September 2018. Independently reported: the analysis was opened and its attribution to federal government figures from the Bureau of Immigration and Ministry of Tourism, the totals of 495,056 medical tourists in 2017, 427,014 in 2016 and 233,918 in 2015, the Bangladeshi figures of 120,388 in 2015, 210,142 in 2016 and 221,751 in 2017 at 55 per cent of the total, the Afghan figures of 27,505 in 2015 and 55,681 in 2017, the figures for Iraq at 47,640, the Maldives at 45,355, Oman at 28,157, Yemen at 11,903, Uzbekistan at 8,309, Nigeria at 5,530 and Pakistan at 1,785 down from 3,632 in 2015, the caveat that previous Indian figures were based on medical visa numbers but not all medical tourists apply for medical visas so the newer figures use total medical tourist numbers, the observation that the Maldives figure is suspicious given a national population of only 445,000, and the statement that no official figures exist for medical tourism income alongside government estimates of USD 3 billion in 2015 projected to USD 9 billion by 2020 implying about USD 12,800 per tourist which the analysis calls unrealistic for a low-cost medical tourism destination were read directly. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- Factly. Data: Medical visas issued by India down more than 20% in 2024 on account of political unrest in Bangladesh. Independently reported: the article was opened and its attribution of medical visa numbers to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs and of foreign tourist arrival figures to the Ministry of Tourism, the medical visa series of about 38,000 in 2012, about 376,000 in 2019, less than half that in 2020, 338,000 in 2021, more than 400,000 in 2022, a record 597,000 in 2023 and 464,000 in 2024 representing a 22 per cent decline, the unavailability of 2018 figures in the public domain, the attribution of the 2024 decline mainly to political unrest in Bangladesh with India indefinitely closing its visa application centres there in August 2024 and issuing visas only for medical and emergency purposes, the 39 per cent fall in visas to Bangladeshi nationals in 2024, Bangladesh accounting for more than 70 per cent of medical visas in recent years and about 70 per cent in 2024, the listing of rising airfares, global economic challenges and visa restrictions as other possible factors, the Afghan position of a significant share until 2021 followed by only one medical visa issued from 2022 to 2024 after India invalidated previously issued physical visas following the Taliban takeover, the Yemeni decline of more than 60 per cent in 2024, the naming of Sri Lanka and the Maldives among the top twenty countries for 2019 to 2024 accounting for about 95 per cent of visas without figures, and the Ministry of Tourism medical-purpose arrival figures of 697,000 in 2019, below 200,000 in 2020 and 635,000 in 2023 were read directly. The headline says over 20 per cent while the body says 22 per cent. The article states no author or publication date. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- Stoney, R. J. and Leidel, L. Medical Tourism. CDC Yellow Book: Health Information for International Travel, 2026 edition, United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Page dated 23 April 2025. Independently reported: the chapter was opened and the listing of cosmetic surgery, dental care, cancer treatment, fertility treatment and organ transplantation as the procedures most often sought abroad, the note that highly resistant bacteria and fungi appear more common in some countries where patients seek care, and the statement that accreditation does not guarantee a good outcome were read directly. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- Chambers, A. Trends in U.S. Health Travel Services Trade. Office of Industries, United States International Trade Commission, Executive Briefing on Trade, August 2015. Independently reported: the briefing was opened and the identification of the leading global providers as Thailand with about 1 million visitors a year, India with 500,000 and Singapore with 350,000, and the global estimate that roughly 3 million patients are thought to travel for healthcare each year, were read directly. The briefing states that the views expressed are those of the author and not those of the Commission. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
Sourcing note: every figure here counts Bangladeshi patients as recorded by India, and the entry says so rather than presenting them as Bangladeshi statistics. The distinction between visa counts and arrival counts is flagged where the years mix the two, following the caveat one source gives about it. The single derived figure, Bangladeshi travel as a share of the global estimate, combines two sources and is identified as a calculation. What happened to patients who could not get a visa after August 2024 is stated to be unmeasured rather than guessed.