A study by the Tourism Observatory of Baja California says the state could attract hundreds of thousands of visitors from California whose purpose of travel is related to health. But most of these are not medical tourists or even health tourists; they are just buying cheap legal drugs.
The state of Baja California sees health related tourism as a boom area for economic development that is strongly backed by the State Government as it foresees huge demand for medical services by Americans.
Within the state are a number of private hospitals and clinics including SIMNSA Hospital in Tijuana, Excel Medical Center, Hospital Angeles Tijuana, Codet Vision Institute, Vita Spa Tijuana, Protegencell, Cosmed and Hospital and Medical Center Prado. In Playas de Rosarito are Serena Senior Care and Hospital Almater Mexicali, Family Hospital, the Hospital Hispano Americano and Women’s Hospital.
According to the Tourism Observatory study "Characterization of international visitors in the border cities of Baja California: Mexicali and Tijuana" done in winter 2012 and 2013 by the Tourism Observatory Baja California state attracted a flow of 840, 000 visitors from California whose purpose of travel was related to health. This is a massive number for the 13 hospitals and clinics it lists in the region. The figures are a grossing up of numbers from a relatively small sample of actual visitors. The size of the sample is not known.
Ethnicity percentages were 37 % Anglo, 52 % Hispanic and 10 % other. Almost all these are adults and most of them are older adults. Only 7 % are under 25, 36% were between 45 and 64 years and only 9% are over 65.
19 % of those visitors has less than $ 20,000 annual income, 31 % have an income of between 20 and 40 thousand dollars, which is the average income in the United States.
The state has created the Tourism and Health Tourism Board of Health. Most members are based in Tijuana, Mexicali or Los Algodones and include hospitals, clinics and laboratories.
Oscar Escobedo Carignan, tourism secretary for Baja California says, "We have a database of laboratories, hospitals, clinics, and doctors. This is being developed so we will be able to target customers and they will be able find a specialist. 2014 will see 500,000 health tourists that generate 230 to 350 million dollars."
In the Tourism Observatory Baja California study the estimate for 2012 and 2013 combined was 840,000 health visitors who spent at least one night in the main destination.
There is a danger that some people will convert the 840,000 for two years – or the estimate of 500,000 for 2014 into figures for medical tourists. But, the study points out that the vast majority of that number do not get any medical or dental care, but simply travel to Mexico to buy legal drugs at prices far below those in California. The study that is exact on age and ethnicity, is very fuzzy on figures and reluctant to state how many of that 840,000 are just buying drugs.