written by Eric Rosli
Does the term ‘medical tourism’ is unusual or strange to you? Medical tourism can be defined as an activity that one makes in travelling and hosting a tourist stays for one or more nights at the destination region in the purpose of maintaining, improving or restoring health through medical intervention.
Medical tourism is rapidly developing throughout the country and Malaysia in particular has become one of the popular destinations due to our competitive medical fees and modern medical facilities. Although medical tourism in Malaysia is still growing, but looking at its pace and the path its taking now can make it through the market due to its strong public health care delivery system in that country being regarded as one of the best in the Asia-Pacific region.
But why Malaysia you asked? Well, Malaysia has a lot to offer when it comes to medical tourism e.g. preferred health care travel destination due to friendly and highly professional medical staff, internationally accredited hospital, world-class hospitals with the state-of-the-art medical facilities, affordable costs of procedures, English-speaking population, safe and friendly environment for visitors.
Under the Ministry of Health Malaysia, an agency called Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) helped to raise Malaysia on par as the world’s class healthcare services. The MHTC has opened MHTC Concierge and Lounge in Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and Penang International Airport (PIA) as the first points of contact for many travelers on their health journeys in Malaysia. Since 2011, the healthcare travelers has been increasing from 643,000 to 859,000 in 2015.
On that note, in many years to come we do hope that medical tourism may keep developing and improving in Malaysia and will positioning the country to be an attractive destination for not only commercial but also medical tourism with the hope to gain lucrative benefits.
Reference
Communications and Publicity Division of Tourism Malaysia. (2008, October). Health Tourism in Malaysia. Retrieved from Tourism Malaysia: http://corporate.tourism.gov.my/images/media/features/Health%20Tourism%20Oct%202008.pdf
Omar, R., & Doling, J. (2000). Health Care in Malaysia. In Issues and Challenges of Social Policy (pp. 29-49). Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press.
Liow, L. T. (2010, April 12). Keynote Address and Official Opening. Healthcare Tourism Congress. KLCC
Musa, G. (2011). Going global in healthcare tourism. Productivity Conference 2011: Productivity in the era of innovation. Malaysian Production