The purpose of this study is to explore whether medical tourism is a future growth area for the tourism industry and discuss its sustainability by analysing the aspects including ethics, benefits, and risks. This research began in October 2022 and ended in April 2023. The introduction provided a background of medical tourism, the rationale for this topic, and introduced the objectives and structure of the dissertation. The literature review reveals what has been argued and demonstrated in existing studies about medical tourism, medical tourism and sustainability, ethics, benefits, and risks. However, most studies refer to sustainability from an economic, social and cultural, and ecological perspective, and few studies examine sustainability by exploring the ethics, benefits, and risks, discussing the value and significance of medical tourism development, and the conditions and possibilities for its development. The methodology used for this study is a systematic literature review. 20 studies were selected for statistical analysis through the selection criteria made by the author, and the results were presented in tables and graphs. The results proved that medical tourism has a range of benefits, ethical issues and risks, so it cannot be one-sidedly regarded medical tourism as a future growth area in the tourism industry and can be sustainable or not. At least, this research found that the negative aspects of medical tourism have solutions in theory, which are being practised as well. Even though this may take a long time, it is possible to achieve sustainability. Besides, this study has limitations and further research is needed.
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