Middle East healthcare travel is experiencing vigorous growth despite the global economic downturn.
In response to the growing need, the Healthcare Travel Exhibition & Congress is being organised from November 15 to 17. The second annual congress will be held at the Al Bustan Rotana hotel, Dubai, and is set to welcome delegates from more than 40 countries.
Eagerly awaited as the region’s biggest healthcare travel congress, leading industry professionals from disciplines including insurance, marketing and accreditation, as well as professionals with clinical backgrounds, will convene to discuss issues surrounding medical tourism and the influence this growing trend continues to wield over health and tourism industries around the globe. Topics include: How to Attract Medical Tourists; The Importance of the Medical Facilitator; How to Address Cultural and Religious Issues and The Impact of Accreditation and Quality.
“The Middle East has a unique dual position in the Medical Tourism Industry,” explains Dr Prem Jagyasi, chairman of Healthcare Travel Congress and managing director of ExHealth, a healthcare focused company located in the Dubai HealthCare City.
“On one hand, the region’s well-developed hospitals are preparing to capture the international market for elective procedures while on the other, international healthcare organisations are tapping into the GCC’s affluent society in search of highly sophisticated and advanced healthcare services unavailable within the GCC.”
Crafted by IIR Life Sciences, organiser of Arab Health, the Healthcare Travel Exhibition & Congress is supported and endorsed by the Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM). With regions such Asia, Europe and South America firmly rooted in the health travel industry, new market players from across the globe are learning how to compete for tourists with competitive packages and world-class healthcare facilities.“Malaysia is emerging as a significant destination for affordable, quality healthcare as its hospitals have been accredited to International Healthcare Standards by The International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua),” sai Dr Jacob Thomas, president of APHM.
Key speakers will include Vishal Bali, CEO of Wockhardt Hospitals Group, one of India’s largest healthcare providers with a national network of internationally accredited super speciality hospitals, and Rudy Rupak, founder and president of Planet Hospital, one of the world’s largest medical tourism companies.
According to ‘Patients beyond Borders’, considered to be a definitive reference guide to medical tourism, 28 countries across four continents cater to the international health traveller, with more than two million patients visiting hospitals and clinics each year in countries other than their own.
In fact, the latest World Bank report indicates that medical tourism is already a $65-billion business and is set to grow further with the globalisation of the healthcare industry. According to the Treatment Abroad Medical Tourism Survey 2007, dentistry is currently the most popular with cosmetic surgery and elective surgery, such as hip replacements and laser eye surgery, following closely behind.
The UAE currently witnesses outbound annual medical travel of nearly $2 billion. With the current strengthening of the medical sector, the nation is looking to medical tourism to emerge as a key sector by not just retaining the outbound travel but additionally attracting a significant number of inbound medical travellers in 2010.