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By Rene Q. Bas, Editor in Chief
Medical tourism is proving to be a super-bright region in our
country’s darkening economic landscape. The country’s chief
statistician warns that we are on the brink of a recession.
If we do slip as badly as Singapore, Malaysia
and Thailand have, the tourism industry—and our good old OFWs—will
help us survive.
And if our country’s tourism industry becomes
a savior, it will be thanks in good measure to the medical
tourism-wellness haven subsector of the industry.
Our medical tourism subsector performed better
in the first quarter of 2009 than in the same period in 2008 despite
the global financial crisis, Tourism Undersecretary Cynthia Carrion
happily says.
The 10-percent growth from January to March came
from more than 200,000 foreigners who came to our medical, dental,
health and wellness centers. If this trend continues, by the end of
2009, a total of 600,000 patients and wellness seekers from abroad
would have arrived and stayed spending dollars and offsetting
somehow the decline in exports, the decline (God forbid) of OFW
remittances and other setbacks caused by the global financial crisis
and economic slowdown.
$3 billion tourism revenues by 2012
The Times has estimated from Tourism statistics
that each medical and wellness tourist who stays in the Philippines
spends an average of $3,500 during his or her stay. If 600,000
medical tourists and wellness-seekers do stay here the gross
receipts from them would be $2.1 billion.
If harder times hit our source countries and
only 300,000 arrive the gross receipts would still be
$1,050,000,000. In the early Department of Tourism projections of
medical tourism income, the goal of $1 billion was yet to come—in
2012!
Because of these early successes, Undersecretary
Carrion now projects that by 2012, the tourism industry will
generate some $3 billion in revenues.
If medical tourism is such a great success, it
is because many of the medical tourists actually come for treatment
and surgery procedures that our best hospitals like the Capitol
Medical Center do as well as or even better than those in the West,
but at very much lower costs. For example, in the United States
knee-replacement surgery costs at least $50,000, while it costs only
$6,000 here.
A complete medical holiday package from the
United States to the Philippines costs less—up to 90 percent in
some cases—than what an American patient would pay for medical
care in the US.
Add to the competence, excellence and price
factors the sweet scent of Filipino nurses and caregivers. They are
famed all over the Western world for being wonderfully caring and
affectionate to their patients.
Undersecretary Carrion also said some of the
wellness-seekers come for our healers—traditional massage experts
(hilot)—and health spas. Our hilots are getting a good name,
especially among Europeans.
Now (see article “Australians awed by RP’s
dentists and dental service”) even our dental surgeons—as well
as dental hygienists—are being sought by foreigners.
One-stop shop business model and strategy
Undersecretary Carrion explains that the
Philippines’ medical tourism industry (or subsector) is
perfecting, and can be said to have perfected, the one-stop shop
model. Every medical tourist who comes to the Philippines gets not
only his or her desired treatment experience—in a medical center,
hospital or wellness center. The patient or wellness-seeker is also
seamlessly led to enjoy the fun and leisure activities appropriate
for his health level.
If golf holidays or cruises, trekking, and
whatever else are called for as part of their cure, they are
pampered with care in experiencing these post-treatment activities.
Tourism Secretary Ace Durano himself said, in
2008, when the Philippines had just won the bid to host the 4th
World Health Tourism Congress, which ended successfully on Saturday,
that the one-stop shop, as a business model and strategy, is what
would make the Philippines succeed as the world’s No. 1 in medical
tourism.
“We should be able to provide every medical
tourist the total package and seamless experience the moment they
arrive in our country,” Durano explained in 2008. “With this
system in place, visitors will have a worry-free stay, [enabling
them to] focus their energy and resources on the treatment, on
relaxing while recuperating and then enjoying themselves
afterwards.”
This, he said, means making the medical tourist
get not only treatment and wellness services but also all the
leisure, fun and shopping components of overseas travel.
4th WHTC a great success
The first three World Health Tourism Congresses
(WHTC) were held in Germany, Cyprus and Spain. That the world’s
tourism industry chose the Philippines and not the other countries
that coveted the opportunity to host the 4th WHTC was itself a proof
of our emergence as a medical tourism and wellness haven in the
global consciousness.
Further proof, or actual testimonies, came from
the foreign delegations who came to attend the Congress. They were
not just being diplomatic. Most of the delegates who came from
virtually every country in the world were travel agency businessmen
who made connections and signed deals with their Philippine
counterparts and the health service providers who were represented
in the Congress.
For details read “4th Health Tourism Congress
truly a great success” and “Sec. Durano: RP rising as prime
player in medical travel”.
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