Healthy talks

Dubai will host The 10th World Health Tourism Congress from September 5 to 7, offering a global platform to healthcare and health insurance providers, tourism promotion bodies, medical and health care regulators and tour operators to discuss a wide range of issues and trends about the health tourism industry.

This will be the second time Dubai hosts this event; the previous events were held in Germany, Cyprus, Philippines, Spain and South Africa.

The congress is organised by Grand Aurum Marketing in cooperation with Dubai Health Care City (DHCC) under the patronage of Dubai Health Authority (DHA) and the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM).

This year, it is expected to attract over 1,500 participants from 80 countries from various geographical regions.

Tamer El Chamaa, director of the congress, said more than 250 participants will be there from the UAE, where the health tourism has been given a focused attention by the tourism authorities and healthcare regulators. The organisers are expecting wider participation from the GCC and Middle Eastern countries.

Dubai offers a perfect destination for hosting the congress considering the fact that it has been aspiring to be a global health tourism hub, offering an interesting mix of attractions and facilities in both tourism and healthcare sectors.

Dubai is aiming to attract 500,000 medical tourists a year by the year 2020. It is said that the global health tourism market size is $95 billion. The global medical tourism market is estimated to grow with a CAGR of 9.5 per cent until the year 2018.

To capture this market, both private sectors and governments of several countries are promoting medical tourism as a potentially lucrative source of foreign revenue.

Most medical tourists to Dubai are from the GCC and the wider region as well as people from countries including Libya, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Tunisia, India, Pakistan, and Russia.