The global outbound medical tourism market stood at $247 billion in 2024, projected to surpass $755 billion by 2034. The GCC medical tourism market alone was valued at $9.6 billion in 2025. When a patient from Abu Dhabi flies abroad for a retinal procedure or cardiac intervention, the cost is not just the procedure - it is the airfare, the lost productivity, the weeks away from work. Multiply that by tens of thousands of patients annually, and the leak becomes one no sovereign strategy should tolerate.