A street in Kuala Lumpur capital of Malaysia. (Photo: Xinhua/VNA)
Kuala Lumpur (VNA) - The Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) targets 2.4billion MYR (about 500 million USD) in revenue from health tourism this year.
The earnings are expected to contribute an economic spillover ofabout 9.6 billion MYR (2.1 billion USD) to other industries, including hospitality andtransport.
MHTC's CEO Dr Mohamed Ali Abu Bakar said this confidence is based on data collected up to November 2023, when theindustry achieved a revenue of over 1.92 billion MYR, in addition to thefederal government’s move to grant visa-free stays of up to 30 days in Malaysiato citizens from China and India, effective December 1 last year.
The total amount not only exceeded the initial target for 2023,but also reached the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Industry Blueprint 2021-2025target of 2 billion MYR two years ahead of schedule. It will also set a new record for theindustry, surpassing the best pre-pandemic achievement of 1.7 billion MYR in2019, he added.
MohamedAli said MHTC is optimistic that Malaysia will see more medical touristarrivals with the visa-free entry decision, given that China and India are alsoamong the countries contributing to the number of tourists in that category.
The implementation of this visa policy is certainly timelybecause many countries have relaxed the conditions for entering and exitingtheir countries following the transition to the endemic phase which started twoyears ago, he continued.
Over the past decade, Malaysia has been knownas a destination for health tourists in the Asia-Pacific region. It recordedmore than 1 million health tourist arrivals in 2023, rising over 15% from 2022.
Indonesia is the largest source of health tourists to Malaysia, accountingfor 70 - 80% of the total number of such visitors. Other sources include Bangladesh,Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, the Republic of Korea,the US, and the UK./.
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A street in Kuala Lumpur capital of Malaysia. (Photo: Xinhua/VNA) 
