KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) expects the country’s hospital receipts to surpass RM2 billion with an estimated total economic impact of RM8 billion in 2020.
This would be fuelled by international healthcare tourist arrivals of about two million next year, MHTC chief executive officer Sherene Azli said.
Sherene said the local healthcare offerings had been presented as a comprehensive package with all the right ingredients for healthcare travellers, namely world-class quality, easy accessibility and competitive affordability.
She added that medical services here are regulated with ceiling rates governed by the Health Ministry.
“Access to medical services have virtually no waiting time, due to structured systems adopted by Malaysia’s private healthcare providers,” she said at the launch of the Malaysia Year of Healthcare Travel 2020 (MyHT2020) campaign here yesterday.
Sherene said Malaysia’s natural geographic wonders, heritage sites and cityscapes are the cherry on the top for patients seeking a relaxing twist to the healthcare travel experience.
“As a result, we have seen only an encouraging growth in the number of healthcare travellers to Malaysia, nearly double the number of arrivals between 2011 to 2018,” she said.
Malaysia recorded about 1.2 million international healthcare tourists last year with a total of RM1.5 billion in hospital receipts, contributing RM6.4 billion to the gross domestic product (GDP).
Sherene said MHTC had targeted about 1.5 million international healthcare tourists this year with a total of RM1.8 billion in hospital receipts.
The MyHT2020 was launched in tandem with the national Visit Malaysia 2020 (VM2020) campaign.
MyHT2020 aims to promote Malaysia as the healthcare destination for international patients to seek health and wellness treatments, while enjoying the country’s tourism attraction.
Among the top countries that seek medical treatment in Malaysia are the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, India, China and those in Asean.
Finance Deputy Minister Datuk Wira Ir. Amirudin Hamzah said MyHT2020 will shine a spotlight on Malaysia as a leading global destination for healthcare which continues to grow.
“In terms of revenue, Malaysia healthcare’s cumulative aggregated growth rate has been an encouraging 17 per cent from 2015 to 2018,” he said.
Meanwhile, Malaysia Airlines Bhd and MHTC signed a memorandum of understanding to strenghten the domestic healthcare travel industry service offerings.