Govt agency for medical tourism sets aim on attracting visitors from more countries. FMTNews Healthcare MedicalTourism
Govt agency for medical tourism sets aim on attracting visitors from more countries.Big push to ‘sell’ Malaysian healthcare in the Middle East By – January 30, 2020 8:19 AM Malaysia hopes to attract 2 million healthcare travellers this year, says the Malaysian Healthcare Travel Council. PETALING JAYA: A government agency for medical tourism is strengthening its presence in the Middle East and several other countries this year. The Malaysian Healthcare Travel Council, an agency under the finance ministry, will expand into Cambodia and Brunei, and build more awareness in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait, said the council’s chief executive,Sherene Azli. The council also expect to build new business from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, she said. “The main challenge in breaking into any new market is building awareness of Malaysia’s healthcare facilities,” explained Sherene. “While these countries may recognise Malaysia for other reasons such as a world-class travel destination, our greatest challenge is to build awareness about the industry’s unique service offerings – which are internationally acknowledged to be among the top in the world,” she added. She said the aim was to attract two million healthcare travellers this year, which is expected to bring in revenue of RM2 billion and contribute RM8 billion to the economy through ancillary services such as food, accommodation, transportation, leisure and tourism activities. In 2018, about 1.2 million healthcare travellers visited Malaysia, spending RM1.5 billion in hospital receipts and producing an economic impact of RM6.4 billion. Although global tourism will be affected by the outbreak of the the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), Sherene said Malaysia’s strong foundation in pandemic preparedness means it will continue to remain an attractive proposition for healthcare travellers. Subscribe to our newsletter and get news delivered to your mailbox.
Source: FMT News
