Updated February 20, 2009 12:00 AM
CEBU, Philippines - Although the world economic turbulence brought jitters in the medical tourism sector in the Philippines, Cebu insists to see a dynamic performance in attracting an increasing number of tourists seeking for medical help.
"As long as the United States will still charge expensive medical services, we are seeing steady growth of medical tourists in Cebu," said Cebu Health and Wellness Council (CHWC) president Oscar Tuason.
Tuason who is also the administrative vice president for Cebu Doctors Hospital (CDH) the largest chain of hospital in Cebu, said for his hospital alone, they are seeing an upward number of tourists availing of different hospital services, such as out-patient procedures, laboratory works, gastro procedures, and even traumatic cases of heart procedures, among others.
Since last year, foreign patients availing several medical services with CDH, increased by six times, or from an average of 10 foreign patients a month to 60 patients a month.
Department of Trade and Industry Cebu Provincial Office (DTI-CPO) provincial director Nelia F. Navarro said that there are negative and positive effects that the global economic crisis will bring to the medical tourism sector in the Philippines.
Because of the crisis, America's medical services will get more expensive, that will push some Americans to avail of these services in least expensive countries, like the Philippines.
However, although there are some Americans who can afford to travel from the U.S, to the Philippines, to avail of medical services, at the same time take their vacation, the crisis may hamper this potential, as some or majority may not be able to afford it, Navarro said.
Navarro, who is one of the founding members of CHWC, and sits as secretary for the organization, said that because of these problems, Cebu medical tourism sector is prioritizing its marketing blitz to invite the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to try the world-class medical services here, as well as the Balikbayan community.
Filipinos working or residing abroad are the best ambassador to tell their foreigner friends of the outstanding medical services in Cebu, of which package will not only offer the required services, but also leisure itinerary, among others.
One of the industry boosters this year, will be the hosting of the Philippines to the World Health Tourism Congress, this coming March 26-28 (2009), the first time to be held in the Philippines.
According to Navarro, the Department of Tourism (DOT) led by Cebuano secretary Joseph Ace Durano spent P10 million to host this prestigious event that will be one of the important instruments for the Philippines, to take off as the preferred medical tourism destination in the world.
CHWC recently organized an event to drum up support from the industry stakeholders to pledge for support for Cebu to send representatives to this event.
CHWC is now raising money to send 12 representatives to the event with a registration fee pegged at 15 thousand Euro.
"Now is the opportunity for us to promote our medical tourism sector.
We don't like to slip this opportunity out of our fingers," Navarro said.
In Asia, medical tourism has raked US$120 billion in revenues for 2006, a big improvement from US$40 billion it earned in 2000. India, is now the number one destination for medical tourists around the world.
Total package for one medical tourist is pegged at US$28,000, depending on medical procedure, this already include accommodation, vacation package among others.
Every medical tourist can save at least US$77,000 for this amount, if they were to have their medical services done in other countries like Europe or United States.
Most services that are availed of by medical travelers are cardiac surgery, executive check up, MRI, CT Scan, among others.— Ehda M. Dagooc
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