AN INCREASING number of patients coming to Germany for medical treatments are choosing to come to Berlin. With 18,000 specialist doctors, 121,500 hotel beds, six large congress centres and halls as well as state-of-the-art spa facilities, the German capital provides excellent infrastructure for medical and health-related travel.
However, it’s always quality over numbers when it comes to medical tourism, VisitBerlin’s Sophia Quint correctly points out. The Visit Berlin team were on a visit to Dubai to promote Berlin as a medical destination in Arab Health held in late January this year. The German Capital is keen to show international guests that it is a trendy, open-minded city and at the same time a top-notch healthcare location. Families, especially tourists from Arab countries are coming to the German capital and are increasingly investing in their health. From January until October last year, guests from Arab countries spent a total of 126,137 nights in Berlin, an increase of 29.4 per cent over the previous year. They also spent an average of 3.9 days, higher than the overall average stay of 2.4 days.Berlin can provide medical experts from all specialities as well as internationally renowned hospitals such as the Deutsche Herzzentrum (German Heart Centre), the university hospital Charité, the Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin or the state-owned hospital group Vivantes. Many other hospitals as Dominikus Krankenhaus (hospital) have international facilities catering specifically to patients from abroad and offering top-class medical treatment in Berlin. As well as the excellent quality of medicine, foreign patients enjoy a unique choice of health coaching, relaxation packages, city spas and beauty treatments. Brandenburg and Berlin will be presenting their tourism highlights at a shared 1,600 sq m stand, representing a total of 79 tourism service providers this ITB. The tourism marketing organisations have chosen to focus this year’s stand on the wide range cycling opportunities available in the two neighbouring German states. Link to the Health in Frankfurt: