Medical tourism is all about substitution

For every medical tourism business, the suppliers ask consumers or self-insured unions and employee benefits buyers to substitute a known local supplier with an unknown brand or a known center of excellence. The only case where this is not always true is in the middle of a "healthcare desert" where there are no sources of local or regional care or access challenges. A substitution analysis is the litmus test of medical, dental and rehabilitation tourism.

If you don't think you can sway the market to substitute your offer in place of a known supplier, you should probably rethink your product strategy and market penetration strategy. You may be setting up a novel idea or product for which there are no customers or for a scenario where the market is insufficient to sustain business profitability and operations.