Wellness council calls for more medtourism infra investments

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu Health and Wellness Council (CHWC) is urging capitalists to put investments on medical tourism facilities, as Cebu is obviously gaining popularity in this positioning.

CHWC vice chairperson Clarissa Pe said that Cebu welcomes more investments of this kind, in order for the province to be ready for the influx of medical tourists from all over the world.

According to Pe, Cebu offers a lot of opportunities in this kind of business in fact, the industry is seeing a lot of developments as far as medical tourism positioning is concerned. Big players in this category, she said is currently scouting for a place in the province.

While existing players, like big hospitals such as Chong Hua Hospital, UCMed, Cebu Doctors have already made gigantic investments to make their respective services at par with the world standard, the environment still offers opportunities for investors.

Earlier, British Ambassador to the Philippines and Palau Asif Anwar Ahmad called on industry players in the Philippines to deepen its programs gearing towards attracting the growing medical tourists, especially from the United Kingdom.

Asif said that in a country where medical professionals are the world's sought-after, medical tourism potential should be used as leverage.

Retirees, who are considering to acquire second home properties in tropical countries like the Philippines, start to travel as medical tourists, he said.

Like other foreign dignitaries, Ahmad expressed his confidence that Cebu has stronger advantage as a medical tourist's or a retiree's choice of destination because of its strategic location and diverse tourism option.

In 2015, the Philippines has landed at the eighth spot in a list of top medical tourism destinations in the world.

In a list compiled by the International Healthcare Research Center and the Medical Tourism Association (MTA), the Philippines ranked ahead of countries like Japan and France. Canada emerged as the top medical tourism destination worldwide followed by the United Kingdom and Israel, which came second and third, respectively.

MTA is a global non-profit association for medical tourism and international patient industry. It represents the healthcare providers, governments, insurance companies, employers and other buyers of healthcare. According to MTA, clients of the Philippines for medical tourism come from East Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan), Sri Lanka, the Pacific Islands (Guam, Palau, Marshall Islands, and Micronesia), Australia, North and South America, Europe and the United Kingdom, and the Gulf States.   (FREEMAN)