Philippines needs to identify niche in medtourism

CEBU, Philippines - The Philippines is working on identifying its competitive advantage in the medical tourism field.

"We can’t be all things in the medical tourism," said Department of Tourism (DOT) assistant secretary Benito Bengzon in an interview.

He said the Philippine government through the DOT is now reviewing a medical tourism roadmap to narrow it down to focus only on the services that the Philippines has huge advantage compared to other destinations.

These include among others, the positioning of the Philippines as destination for executive medical check-up services, orthopedics and aesthetic dental services.

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

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.

It also noted that Filipino expats and overseas Filipino workers prefer to have their medical procedures done in the country.

Medical tourism in the Philippines caters to about 80,000 to 250,000 patients or clients annually.

Roughly, there are over 60 hospitals around the country that are now internationally accredited.

According to Bengzon, Philippines is still to identify the right positioning of the country in order to make medical tourism one of the strong contributors of tourism industry in the country.

Earlier, British Ambassador to the Philippines and Palau Asif Anwar Ahmad called on 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, the ambassador said. (FREEMAN)