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CNN International's 'Marketplace Middle East' explores if Dubai is ready to claim a major slice of this market
Dubai receives more than 15 million visitors every year and their target is to achieve 20 million by 2020. One way they are looking to achieve it is by growing medical and wellness tourism. In the latest episode of Marketplace Middle East, CNN International hears from some of the medial professionals working in this field.
Dr Nasim Ashraf, DNA Health Center, tells host John Defterios: “Medical tourism is a phenomenon in which people usually would travel to another country to get the same treatment at a cheaper price. In the past, people used to go to the US or UK or Europe for different treatments. Now a lot of countries, especially in this region, are coming to Dubai.”
The show meets Rudolf Cayubit, who has travelled from The Philippines for treatment in Dubai. He speaks about his experience: “Here they have the most sophisticated medical equipment. It’s not like in the Philippines; you go to another hospital to get a scan. So here you get everything in one place.”
Rudolf was a patient at Dubai’s Al Zahra Hospital, which is increasingly catering to medical tourists and last year it treated more than 4,000 international patients with a variety of conditions.
Dr Mohaymen Abdelghany CEO, Al Zahra Hospital, explains: “In the hospital we offer a range of services from plastic surgery procedures including rhinoplasties, advanced cancer surgery services, and we do orthopaedics and sports injury services. The city has all the bits and pieces that are important for medical tourism. On top of that, there are very high quality hospitals and health care institutions here who provide very, very high end surgeries and procedures which are attractive for medical tourists.”
Marketplace Middle East learns that in 2012, Dubai had 107,000 international medical tourists and by 2016 that figure jumped to more than 320,000, generating 381 million dollars. This growth propelled it to number one in the region and 18th in the world.
Speaking about Dubai’s popularity amongst international medical tourists, Dr Layla Mohamed AlMarzouqi says: “37% of people who came to Dubai in 2016 were from Asian countries; 31%, were from Arab countries; and 15% were from European countries. More than 80% of our hospitals are internationally accredited. We have health care professionals from more than 110 nationalities, so we say in Dubai, “We'll speak your language, we are culture sensitive”.”
The show reveals that there are big growth plans with the aim of attracting 500,000 medical tourists by 2020, thereby generating 710 million dollars annually.
Dr Nasim Ashraf, DNA Health, on the appeal of Dubai for medial tourism, comments: “It has very high quality medical care compared to other countries in the region. And [is] also relatively much better priced than say, what one would pay in the US.”
The programme discovers that the low costs could be a stumbling block to future growth. The Medical Tourism Index – an international analysis of medical tourism - ranked Dubai as average when it comes to patient experience and the cost of providing healthcare. Addressing these issues could be key to its global ambitions.
Medical Tourism alone will not propel Dubai to its target of 20 million visitors by 2020. Wellness tourism, a global 500-billion-dollar industry, is a key growth sector, as Dr Nasim Ashraf explains: “Twenty-five, thirty years ago, people would take an environmentally conscious vacation. Now it's wellness oriented. So you want to go and say, "I went for a week or two weeks of vacation. I had fun but I also reconnected with myself, I connected with my partner. I did something to help my spirits, my spirituality”. The wellness potential and the market is maybe ten times bigger than the medical tourism market. Because medical tourism is still limited to procedures, it's limited to actual surgery, or treatment of cancer or heart disease or diabetes. Wellness tourism is everything a person who is completely well, but at the age of 35 wants to have an annual checkup, and come for a week in which we can act with themselves and their souls.”
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‘CNN Marketplace Middle East’ airs at the following times on CNN International:
Saturday 24th June 19.00 GST
Sunday 25th June 04:15 and 19:45 GST
Monday 26th June 04.15 and 20:30 GST
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© Press Release 2017
