Malaysia’s next phase of medical tourism growth

Malaysia’s position as a leading medical tourism destination is well-established, supported by clinical quality, competitive pricing, proximity to key source markets, and sustained government support.

But as the market matures, constraints are emerging across hospital groups and related healthcare operators: uneven conversion despite rising patient enquiry volume, increased acquisition costs, difficulty quantifying returns on overseas marketing spend, as well as overwhelmed admissions teams and inconsistent healthcare practices.  
 
Conversion challenges are rarely clinical in nature. They are often structural and operational, from fragmented data across marketing, admissions, and clinical systems, to reactive follow-up processes and limited visibility into conversion performance. 

Unsurprisingly, only 48% of Asia Pacific organisations polled in PwC’s AI Performance study, keep a single trusted record of critical data that’s accessible across the business. This fragmentation is evident in medical record availability, with only 26% of respondents from our 2025 US Healthcare Consumer Insights survey saying it’s very easy to access their medical records across providers. Often, these challenges stem from the absence of customer relationship management (CRM) platforms to manage international patient pipelines. 

Collectively, these issues reveal a gap in how conversion is managed, reinforcing the need to treat this as an end-to-end orchestration challenge, spanning strategy, operating model, data, and execution, instead of mere marketing and admissions issues. 
 
It’s an area PwC and Salesforce are working together to address, bringing together complementary strengths in strategy, data, and technology, to help providers respond with greater clarity and control. This is convergence in action—creating value by integrating capabilities across the healthcare ecosystem, instead of operating in silos.  

What it takes to close the conversion gap

Leading providers increasingly focus on a set of guiding questions, which frame the foundation for sustainable improvement:

• How do we create a single, trusted view of international patients across channels and providers?

• How do we tailor engagement by market and intent without escalating cost?

• How do we ensure consistent execution while preserving local relationships? 

• How do we measure conversion performance and act on it in real-time?

These high performers are responding by building the right digital backbone—investing in platforms like Salesforce to unify patient data, orchestrate engagement, and enable real-time visibility into conversion performance. 

From insight to action: A conversion-led operating model

While these themes are well understood, the challenge lies in how providers embed them in their operations across the international patient journey. This is reflected across three areas.   

• Visibility across the journey 
  49% of health leaders globally find that siloed information is a barrier to productivity while 22% of their peers are constrained by the lack of access to real-time consumer information, based on Salesforce’s research on healthcare and life sciences.  
   
  Leading providers establish clear visibility from the first enquiry through admission and post-care engagement. This builds understanding of where value is lost, which markets convert effectively, and where interventions matter most. 

• Segmented, intentional engagement 
  Rather than treating all international patients the same, leading providers design differentiated journeys by source market, intent, and value. Engagement is structured, timely, and responsive, balancing human interaction with digital enablement.  
   
  For instance, aggregator websites are prioritised for Singaporean patients who are typically driven by cost and convenience. Physical booths, accompanied by high-touch follow ups are used to engage Indonesian patients who value trust and long-term relationships.  

• Scalable execution across healthcare facilities 
  Conversion improvement is embedded in operating models, instead of relying solely on individual teams. Core processes are standardised, performance is measured consistently, and successful practices are replicated across facilities.

When these capabilities come together, providers can improve conversion while controlling cost and complexity. Digital platforms, such as Salesforce CRM and engagement technologies are important enablers of data integration, workflow orchestration, and performance insight.

Sustaining these outcomes is not about “doing more marketing”—it’s about clear ownership and data stewardship, robust governance, and disciplined execution and monitoring across various ecosystem providers. 

A roadmap for sustained outcomes

For most healthcare providers, improving conversion does not require wholesale transformation. Focus, sequencing, and leadership commitment are the keys to success. 

A practical path forward typically unfolds in three stages:

• Stage 1: Establish control and clarity 
  Providers begin by clarifying ownership of international patient journeys, strengthening lead capture, and creating basic visibility into conversion performance.  
   
  42% of Asia Pacific organisations from PwC’s AI Performance study say their employees trust AI-generated insights and act on them—a starting point in enhancing care coordination and efficiency.  

• Stage 2: Design for differentiation 
  With visibility in place, providers segment patients by market and intent, redesign engagement journeys, and standardise core processes across hospitals and other parts of the ecosystem while building strong local relationships across the value chain. 

• Stage 3: Scale with confidence 
  Providers use data, automation, and analytics to improve consistency, manage volume, and optimise yield, while maintaining operational efficiency. Agentforce is a crucial enabler, offering 24/7 support and consistent interactions with patients to keep them engaged and motivated.  
  

Through this sequenced approach, organisations deliver near-term improvements while building durable capability, anchored by leadership commitment. Importantly, this aligns conversion improvement with broader strategic objectives, including margin management, brand positioning, and sustainable growth.

As providers strengthen their own conversion performance, the benefits extend beyond individual organisations to the broader medical tourism ecosystem. 

Elevating Malaysia’s medical tourism ecosystem 

The next phase of medical tourism growth in Malaysia will be defined by not only the volume of patient arrivals, but by how effectively the ecosystem serves them. 

For the Malaysian Healthcare Tourism Council (MHTC) and other national stakeholders, improving conversion effectiveness offers a pathway to elevate Malaysia’s position from a competitive destination to a high-performing ecosystem. Greater visibility into patient journeys and outcomes enables more targeted promotion, better alignment between policy and provider capability, and higher consistency of patient experience across the system.

This shift matters. Transitioning from price-led competition toward experience-led differentiation reinforces trust in Malaysia as a medical tourism destination, ensuring that growth translates into sustainable economic value.

Explore how PwC and Salesforce enable healthcare leaders and ecosystem stakeholders to pursue conversion excellence—strengthening providers, enhancing patient experience, and sustaining Malaysia’s leadership in regional medical tourism.