“How much will a travel clinic make me?” is the wrong question. The right question is: “what determines whether mine makes £15,000 or £100,000?” Because both outcomes happen, with the same vaccines and the same training.
Here’s the honest maths. (All figures are illustrative UK ranges — plug your own numbers into the profit calculator.)
The unit economics
A typical travel patient books a consultation and leaves with 1–3 vaccines plus, often, antimalarials:
| Component | Typical price | Typical cost | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consultation | £0–£20 | your time | — |
| Hepatitis A | £60 | ~£20 | ~£40 |
| Typhoid | £40 | ~£12 | ~£28 |
| Rabies course (3 doses) | £210 | ~£90 | ~£120 |
| Antimalarials (course) | £55 | ~£15 | ~£40 |
Average basket across a normal patient mix lands around £80–£150, at 60–75% gross margin. Long-haul patients (rabies, hep B, JE) are the profit centre — one rabies course is worth more than three hep A patients.
Three realistic scenarios
Assume 48 trading weeks and a £110 average basket:
- The quiet clinic — 2 patients/week: £10,560/year. This is what happens with a fridge full of vaccines and no marketing. Covers costs, pays for itself, moves no needles.
- The steady clinic — 6 patients/week: £31,680/year. A well-run suburban pharmacy with a solid Google Business Profile and online booking. Roughly £20–24k gross profit for a few clinical hours a week.
- The destination clinic — 20+ patients/week: £110,000+/year. Urban location or strong catchment, ranks top-3 for “travel clinic [city]”, takes online bookings 24/7, runs group and family appointments efficiently. At this level travel is a business line, not a side service.
The clinical work is identical in all three. The difference is entirely demand capture.
The ramp-up curve nobody warns you about
Month one will underwhelm you. Travel demand is planned weeks ahead, so bookings lag your launch by 4–8 weeks — and if you launch in October, you’re launching into the low season and might conclude (wrongly) that it doesn’t work.
Sensible expectations for a clinic launched with decent marketing:
- Months 1–2: a handful of patients, mostly your own regulars
- Months 3–6: Google visibility kicks in; first full season fills the diary
- Year 2: repeat travellers, word of mouth and reviews compound; this is your real run-rate
Wastage discipline matters most during the ramp: order high-risk stock against bookings, not hope. A binned short-dated rabies vial erases the profit of several patients.
What separates the winners
Having reviewed how well-performing clinics operate, the pattern is boringly consistent:
- They rank in the local map pack. “Travel vaccinations near me” and “travel clinic [town]” are where the £900 families come from. If your Google Business Profile doesn’t list travel services with photos and reviews, you’re invisible at the exact moment of intent.
- They take bookings online, 24/7. Travel is planned at the kitchen table in the evening. Phone-only booking hands those patients to whoever’s bookable at 9pm.
- They price consultations to convert. Free consultation redeemed against treatment out-converts a £25 standalone fee, and the “cost” disappears the moment the patient proceeds.
- They work the whole trip. Sun care, repellent, first-aid, jet-lag advice, B12 or other private top-ups — the basket beyond the needle is pure margin.
If you haven’t launched yet, start with the step-by-step travel clinic guide. If you’ve launched and the diary is quiet — the service isn’t the problem, and it almost never is.