Hello, welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service. I'm Gideon Long with a question for you.

Where will you retire and live out your old age? Increasingly, older people in wealthier Western countries

are choosing to move abroad, fed up with what they see as poor quality, expensive care in their own

countries. One of the places they're heading for is Thailand,

which has established itself as a hub for Western pensioners.

There is definitely a growing demand.

I remember when we started, we had one new guest per year.

Now, on average, we get a new guest every three to four weeks,

so it has dramatically accelerated

in part this is due to the spiraling cost of care in europe and north america but it's also

about the culture in thailand religion even the buddhist culture is very interesting people do not

lose their temper people are extremely gentle and kind,

and particularly to the elderly. But what does all this mean for care for local people,

particularly for those who can't afford to go private? One of the big critiques is that this

infrastructure, all these private hospitals, facilities, they are draining resources away, investment,

nurses, doctors from the public and private clinics in hospitals that are desperately needed

by the national population. That is a real concern. We're all generally living longer and spending

more years in retirement. The demand for care homes is only likely to grow.

So is Thailand offering a workable business model for care?

And if so, could it work elsewhere?

That's coming up on this edition of Business Daily.

It's Saturday morning at the Care Resort resort Chiang Mai in northern Thailand

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