Malaysia medical tourism sector has room to grow

KUCHING: Despite being second best to neighbours Singapore and Thailand, Malaysia is quickly becoming a popular destination for health travellers, boosting the country's image on the medical tourism front in Asia.

Inside Investors noted in its report that medical tourism in Malaysia had emerged as one of the fastest growing segments over the last few years despite the global economic downturn with approximately 400,000 health tourist generating over RM380 million in revenue for 2010 alone.

It explained that a majority of the health visitors came from neighbouring countries such as Indonesia, accounting for 69 per cent and Singapore accounting for 12 per cent. Other note worthy visitors came from Japan, Australia, the UK, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as well as the rest of Europe.

"With support from the Malaysian government, a large number of Malaysian private hospitals are actively participating in health tourism. The treatment sought by patients coming to Malaysia is predominantly cardiac, cosmetics, ophthalmology, dental, diagnostic services (MRI and CT Scans) and orthopedic," the business intelligence unit stated.

Over the past few years however, the number of medical tourists to Malaysia was lower than expected attributed to the global recession.

According to the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu), markets such as Singapore and Thailand had weathered the downturn better by positioning themselves as leaders in specific niches of the industry, offering high quality care and high value health experiances.

"Nonetheless, the Malaysian government is optimistic about the healthcare travel industry in the country, targetting ten per cent per annum revenue growth for the period 2011 to 2015."

(source: theborneopost.com)