MEDICAL TOURISM - ‘Rope in the agents’

TTGasia.com, Jun 1 - 7, 2007

Medical tourism was identified in the late-1990s as a potential growth segment to improve the Malaysian economy due to the economic downturn. The government recognised the importance of this segment because health tourists spend an average four times more than recreational tourists. In 1998, the then Health Minister, Datuk Chua Jui Meng, called on the Ministry of External Trade and Industry (MATRADE) and the then Ministry of Culture, Arts and Tourism to look into medical tourism. But it was not until 2003 that medical tourism took off. Private hospitals worked with the Health Ministry, MATRADE, the then Ministry of Culture, Arts and Tourism, and the Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia (APHM) to promote health tourism.

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