KUALA LUMPUR: As Covid-19 vaccines roll out, Malaysia aims to surpass the RM1bil revenue mark of healthcare travel to hospital facilities within the next two to three years, which will contribute up to RM6bil to the country’s economic growth.
Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council chief executive officer Sherene Azli (pic) said the target to achieve healthcare travel revenue of more than RM1bil would be possible in the next two to three years as there would be more certainty towards policies for healthcare tourism, including the medical travel bubble coupled with the availability of vaccines.
In 2019, Malaysia’s healthcare travel revenue stood at RM1.7bil, which contributed around RM8bil to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
However, for this year, she expects the country’s healthcare travel revenue to tumble 70% to RM500mil compared with RM1.7bil in 2019, dragged by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“There was a still small amount of medical tourism in the country due to the medical travel bubble.
Source: The Star