Jonay Perera-Gil, Rodrigo Chacón-Ferrera, Mª Ángeles Ferrera- Fernández and Rosa Candelas

Objective: Knowing the characteristics of health tourism and to develop a theoretical framework exploring empirical evidence the health tourism in Spain studying major competitive methods, the aim is to objectively examine the lines of action being taken by the clinics to then offer a theory of how to compete successfully in the medical tourism business.

Method: Apply a descriptive quantitative approach to analyze data collected through a questionnaire distributed to 148 clinics in 50 provinces, in 2011.

Results: Tourist offers medical services are mainly aimed at German, British and French citizens. 91.46% of the centers surveyed say their services are designed for tourists. There are agreements with hotels / apartments according to 59.52% of the sample, stating that the 66.67% refuse to work with health tourism and wellness, which could offer service centers / clinics in the rest of Spain and abroad.

Conclusions: There is a high demand for health tourism. Tour operators play an important role in the management of these services, as well as in the design of travel packages and medical services adapted to the expectations and needs of tourists. The most popular services include: emergencies, plastic surgery, and clinical analyses.