Dental tourism is one of the major sources of income for most Southeast Asian countries. If there are no tourists, the Dental tourism industry is gone. During the first quarter of 2020 borders were ordered closed by most countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of patients canceled their appointments, hotel reservations, and flights affecting a lot of jobs in the dental tourism industry and also in hotels, restaurants, and transportations.
In Thailand medical treatments for foreign patients had been opened for travel since the start of the 3rd quarter of 2020, because Thailand was one of the countries in ASEAN that have avoided a large scale COVID infection, however, there were health protocols still to be followed some of which were expensive and time-consuming since you needed to quarantine for 14 days in hotels which costs a lot, so in short, the scheme did not go well for tourists.
Dental tourism alone is big business and takes a big chunk in medical tourism, United States citizens alone, millions of them travel to other countries to have dental treatments done because the cost is cheaper, easier to book an appointment and you get to enjoy a holiday and you still have money left in the bank after this.
But what happens after COVID 19?
2021 Has started with a positive outlook, COVID vaccine manufacturers released and countries approved of the use of the vaccines and said to show promising results, even though it was just made in a short period.
This may just be the lighting rod that could bring dental tourism to life. Soon foreign patients would start to travel back to their favorite country to have their dental procedures done, also they may have saved some money to make bigger procedures or more procedures and it can be big spending for one patient.
Most of the modern dental clinic have digitalized their files and have been set up for Dental tourism from the beginning, so they would like to get back to business as soon as possible, so most of them have made other ways to get InTouch with their patients, by email, chatting through social media, and video calls, through this it may show some positive stance and confidence for the dental business.
As everything changes, in dental tourism, the patients and the dental profession are reinventing themselves to adjust to the new normal. One thing is for sure there will be a lot of changes in dental tourism, there will be protocols that will go in line with new laws to come in the fight of COVID-19.
On the other hand, some countries may not be accepting medical and dental tourists, COVID-19 may be around for years even though there are vaccines to come, some may be anxious about traveling because of COVID. Some travelers may have different views depending on their age group, young travelers will once again go out and have treatments abroad but as for the middle age may have different view compared to the young travelers. However, most will choose domestic travel and the smart travelers may choose countries with good governance and health care, they may take fewer trips with longer stays, but for sure Dental tourism will still take a bite of this piece of pie to come.
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