We Are Now Ranked 3rd, But It Is Possible For Malaysia To Become The No. 1 Choice For Medical Tourism - Here's Why
2016 will probably be a challenging year to the economy in Malaysia, Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz had remarked in her speech at the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong earlier this week.
The ringgit has been on a roller-coaster ride for most of 2015, mostly on the downward slide and looks set to continue this pattern in 2016; while the lifting of trade sanctions in Iran, brought oil prices to new lows of below the US$30 per barrel, Bernama reports.
Due to the unexpected economic downturn, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak recently announced that the government is forced to revise its 2016 budget again.
We have been inundated by unfavourable economic and business data since the New Year began except for one ray of hope – it was recently announced that Malaysia ranks among the top 3 destinations in Asia for medical tourism.
Apart from exporting crude oil, it appears that Malaysia also depends on its tourism industry as a source of income. The tourism industry is now the 6th largest GDP contributor, Najib noted in his blog post in October last year.
A significant portion of those earnings comes from the growing medical tourism industry in Malaysia, which has grown ten-fold in less than a decade.
Medical or health tourism is one of the fastest growing sub-sectors in the world and Malaysia is heading toward positioning the country to be an attractive destination for medical tourism with the hope to gain lucrative return.
In the years 2011 to 2014, the number of medical tourists to Malaysia increased from 641,000 to 882,000 per year. In 2015, medical tourism brought in revenues amounting to RM730mil from more than 880,000 arrivals.
Malaysian Digest decided to take a closer look at this fast-growing sector of the tourism industry that appears to be immune to the global economic downturn and find out if Malaysia has what it takes to go all the way to the top as the top choice of medical tourists,
So Why Are Medical Tourists Flocking To Malaysia?
Malaysia has the ideal combination as far as the healthcare tourism is concerned such as world-class medical treatment at affordable prices in an English-speaking environment, supported by good infrastructure.
According to the International Medical Travel Journal (IMTJ) the driving forces of medical tourism in Malaysia are accessibility, affordability and quality where 41 of its 268 private hospitals have received International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua) approved accreditation standards.
"Malaysia has become the number one medical travel destination in Asia through our focus on delivering an outstanding patient experience. We now want to share that experience with patients from around the globe and become the number one medical travel destination in the world,” Sherene Azli the CEO to assume the helm of Malaysian Health Tourism Council remarked in a statement upon her appointment last year.
Despite the ringgit depreciation, Malaysia’s economy is doing quite well, thanks to the tourism sector.
Prof Dr Ahmad Puad Mat Som (pic), Dean of Faculty of Applied Social Sciences, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UNISZA) told Malaysian Digest that the ringgit depreciation actually helps Malaysia’s economy when medical tourists flock to Malaysia to seek medical treatments.
Prof Dr Ahmad Puad Mat Som
Prof Dr Ahmad Puad Mat Som
With the depreciation of ringgit, it makes every service offered by private hospitals in Malaysia cheap to foreigners
“They come to Malaysia [for treatment] because it’s cheap compared when getting it at their own country.
“For instance, the cost of medical services in the United Kingdom is high, so one of the options is to come to our region like Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore.
“They can get the same service in Malaysia for cheaper price,” he reasoned.
He further asserted that after the treatment, they have to stay to recover. They can then use the savings from the favourable currency exchange rates for a recuperating vacation stay at a hotel or for other leisurely expenses throughout their stay in Malaysia.
Prof Dr Ahmad’s view is shared by many medical tourism industry professionals worldwide.
US-based publication International Living had previously rated Malaysia’s healthcare system as the third best out of 24 countries in its 2014 Global Retirement Index.
"At this time, foreigners cannot access the public healthcare system here, but the low cost of healthcare and the range of health insurance options mean that paying for healthcare is no hardship. Healthcare costs are so low that you can pay out of pocket for many standard procedures. A regular doctor's visit costs (US)$16 and a dental check-up costs (US)$9," the International Living report states.
“Malaysia Healthcare Travel Is Highly Regarded”
Pic: Malaysia TodayOther than costs being much lower than at their home country, chairman of The Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, Mr Wee Choo Keong told Malaysian Digest that Malaysia healthcare travel is highly regarded in Asia.
“Our health care standard is high in Asia and at a much lower cost than that of our immediate competitor, Singapore.
“Our health care in private Hospitals like Pantai Medial Center, Subang Medical Centre, Damansara Med Center and etc are all of high standard,” he told Malaysian Digest via WhatsApp.
Much of the good reputation of Malaysian healthcare worldwide is the world class facilities and availability of specialists.
Frost & Sullivan, a consulting firm which provides market research and analysis, wrote that compared to other countries in ASEAN, Malaysia has a higher-than-average availability of medical personnel and high quality facilities providing treatments across different ranges of the cost spectrum, making it an attractive destination for medical tourists.
On the other hand, Mr Wee pointed out that promotion of medical tourism in Malaysia has been receiving cabinet level attention by the Ministry of Tourism & Culture together with Tourism Malaysia, which is working together in promoting healthcare tourism.
“It is an income generating industry for not only medical industry but Malaysia.
“Tourism Malaysia also has healthcare tourism as part of its promotion activities,” he said.
“If we look at the trends now in Malaysia, the most popular medical tourism destinations among medical tourists are Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Melaka.
“The reason being is that private hospitals in both Penang and Melaka are getting popular is because of close proximity with Indonesia,” he asserted.
mymedholiday.com file pic
mymedholiday.com file pic
In terms of market, other than focusing on the existing market that is predominantly from Asia, the various ministries and government councils have started setting their sights further afield.
In 2015, 80% of all medical tourists coming into Malaysia are from its neighbouring countries, including Thailand and Singapore - medical tourism enclaves themselves, International Living had reported in a feature on the booming medical tourism industry in Malaysia last year.
“We have started to look at new markets apart from medical tourists from the European and Middle Eastern countries,” Wee highlighted.
Prof Dr Ahmad also concurred that Malaysia is not content resting on its laurels and seeking to expand its target market in Asia wider beyond Southeast Asia.
“We are looking at Japanese market to attract more medical tourist from that region,” Dr Ahmad Puad said.
Wee said apart from more promotion of the healthcare tourism, medical centres must keep on upgrading its medical facilities in order to gain more confident from medical tourists.
“Confidence could only be increased by continuously recruiting more renowned medical specialists and improving the existing facilities in the said medical centres,” he concluded.
“We Aim To Be Ambitious By Bringing Ourselves To Number One”
Pixabay file pic
Sherene Azli, the new chief executive officer of the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) appointed in 2015 had stated in one of her inaugural interviews with GlobalHealthandTravel.com that the country has stated its intention to break the one-million mark for annual medical tourist arrivals in the next few years. Below are the key excerpts from her interview:
“Our primary aim is to drive healthcare travel in the country to a level that is better than now. We aim to be ambitious by bringing ourselves to number one by 2020. Our recent accomplishment at the recent International Medical Travel Journal (IMTJ) Medical Travel Awards 2015 is proof that we are on the right track. To be named as the Medical Travel Destination of the Year is a remarkable achievement for us.
Sherene Azura Azli
Sherene Azura Azli
“We are looking at getting all the different players together to find that ‘magic formula’ to drive us toward that ambitious target. We have done a strategic assessment, in terms of where we are, how effective our initiatives have been in the last four years since MHTC was set up, and from there, we have come up with a more focused, niche strategy with our own unique selling proposition for Malaysia.
“For example, we used to be focused on core medical services like oncology, orthopaedics, cardiology and infertility, but we now know that wellness is a growing sector, especially for countries where the people have the spending capacity.
“They are very much interested in looking at prevention, simple things like detoxification, or alternatives like Traditional Complementary Medicine.
“Additionally, there is a growing demand for cosmetic surgery. Previously, Malaysia wasn’t strong in these areas, but now we can see the demand and are building facilities to address this.
“We are growing medical hubs in Malaysia focusing on three main areas: Penang, Malacca and Johor Bahru. This is a new strategy and still a work in progress. We are looking at these three key areas under the 11th Malaysia Plan, the five-year period from 2016-2020, in order to spearhead cooperation.
“The recuperation phase is an equally important component of receiving healthcare treatment. We already have an excellent healthcare system, now we want to also create a holistic healthcare ecosystem for our healthcare travellers by offering wellness packages to complement the patients’ post-treatment recuperation period.
“Additionally, Malaysia has the niche advantage of being a Global Halal Hub with our wide range of Muslim-friendly facilities, eateries, public amenities, Halal medical alternatives and medication which are gelatine and porcine free. We also have medical professionals and personnel who are Muslim themselves, and even the non-Muslims here understand the needs of Muslims and are able to accommodate to their specific needs.”
- mD
