SINGAPORE - Medical pulse races

TTGasia, Nov 17 - 23, 2006 / No.1502

SINGAPORE – With more countries having their scalpels ready to slice the lucrative medical travel pie, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Singapore travel agents are being forced to sharpen theirs, to protect a market that has been growing well since 2002.

Perhaps the most serious competition Singapore – and Thailand, which has also made inroads into the market – faces is from Dubai, whose Dubai Healthcare City (DHC) entered its second phase of development in June.

DHC aims to become “a regional centre for medical excellence...enriched by international healthcare providers” such as the renowned Harvard Medical School. Launched in 2002, DHC is about 1.8 million square metres and is targeted to be fully operational in 2010. The infrastructure cost is around US$1.8 billion. It will have medical facilities, a wellness centre, hotels and shopping centres. With medical travellers from the Middle East to Singapore growing at double-digit rates, there are concerns DHC will siphon off this traffic.

Singapore saw a 17 per cent increase to 374,000 medical travellers in 2005. According to STB Singapore Medicine director, Dr Jason Yap, the majority of visitors were from Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. “We are seeing rapid, in some cases, double digit or better, growth from the Middle East, Greater China (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mongolia), Indochina, South Asia and even from North America and Europe,” he said.

Besides aiming for high-end clients requiring specialised care, STB is actively pursuing new markets through activities such as attending medical conferences and exhibitions.

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