Australia a potential market for health, wellness offering — DOT

MANILA, Philippines — Australia is among the potential markets the Philippines could tap for its health and wellness tourism offerings, driven by interest for its dental services, an official of the Department of Tourism (DOT) said.

“Right now, we are looking at Australia,” Tourism Assistant Secretary Roberto Alabado III told The STAR.

“They are coming here right now even without promotions,” he said.

Alabado cited Clark and Cebu as among the areas frequented by Australian dental patients.

He said the county is eyeing to create tour packages focused on dental tourism, noting that some medical integrators recently visited the Philippines to inspect facilities that can cater to this market.

“So I think it’s a low-hanging fruit that the Philippines can easily have because according to the PDA (Philippine Dental Association) we have around 30,000 dentists and our technology is at par with our neighbors, but we can do it cheaper and at a more professional manner because we can also speak English,” Alabado said.

Australia remains the country’s sixth top source market of foreign arrivals as of the first 10 months of 2019.

In January to October, arrivals from Australia grew 2.63 percent to 226,167 from 220,374 in the same period last year.

Tourism Undersecretary Benito Bengzon Jr. earlier identified dental procedures, along with executive checkups, as among the medical treatments the Philippines has to offer that could attract more health and wellness tourists into the country.

“In the case of medical tourism, we’ve identified the priority treatments which we feel the Philippines can become competitive in, taking into consideration availability of our medical professionals and frontliners, price competitiveness, etc,” Bengzon said.

Among the priority treatments include executive checkup, opthalmology, aesthetics and dental, cardiology and minimally invasive surgery.

Bengzon said medical tourism falls under health and wellness tourism, one of the 10 products identified under the National Tourism Development Plan 2016 to 2022.

In line with the development of the medical tourism sector, Bengzon said the DOT continues to talk to hospitals providing the priority treatments.

“Some of them are already very aggressive in promoting abroad,” Bengzon said.

He said that some hospitals participate in the DOT’s roadshows abroad.

Alabado earlier said the Philippines is already a provider of medical services to some countries in the Pacific, noting the country’s cost-effective offerings.

“Their citizens come to the Philippines for medical purposes,” Alabado said.

“We have some of the most cost-effective medical checkups. Then we have dental tourism which is also fast growing. We have people coming from Australia just for their dental works,” he added.

Alabado also identified balikbayans from the US and Canada as another potential market for the country’s medical tourism offerings.

Based on a report from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the Philippines ranks 24th among the top countries in inbound medical tourism spending, with spending totaling to $69 million in 2017.

The report emphasized that medical tourism has become an important niche market over recent years, supported by various government policies and private sector initiatives across the world.

“Countries have recognized the opportunities that medical tourism brings as a catalyst for social and economic development and its potential to support quality education, highly skilled workers, favorable visa policies, promotion of a country’s attractiveness, and well-developed infrastructure within a country,” the WTTC said.

“As more governments recognize these benefits and develop strategies and policies for this sub-sector, WTTC expects that with the right policies, support and regulation, medical tourism can continue to grow across developed and emerging economies,” it added.