Medical tourism is a key component of the UAE’s tourism strategy leading up to the year 2020
Dubai’s government has claimed its medical tourism industry generated 1 billion dirhams ($272 million) in revenue in the first half of the year, keeping it on track for its 2020 targets.
According to Dubai Health Authority, 260,000 medical tourists visited the emirate during the period, up 12 per cent from a year earlier. The government body is tasked with growing the medical tourism industry into a 2.6 billion dirhams industry by the year 2020, and authorities hope to increase the number of medical tourists to 500,000 per year by then.
“Overall medical tourism is set as a key component of the UAE government’s long-term strategy of diversifying its economy away from oil and gas,” says Diana Jarmalite, an analyst with research firm Euromonitor International. “It is one of the fastest growing tourism categories in the region over the last few years,” she says.
A majority of medical tourists in the UAE come from other emirates, but around 40 per cent come from neighbouring countries like Pakistan, India, and Saudi Arabia. Jarmalite says infertility treatments, cosmetic surgery and dental procedures are the most popular treatments sought by medical tourists in the UAE.
Jarmalite says the government of the UAE has “actively, aggressively and very successfully invested in developing a first class infrastructure to support the country’s positioning as a medical tourism destination,” with hotel and flight packages and new visa policies.
In August of last year the UAE government implemented changes to visa regulations to facilitate medical tourism. The changes include allowing hospitals to sponsor visas for individuals in other countries who are seeking treatment in the UAE, as well as allowing visas for multiple trips. A medical treatment visa costs 550 dirhams, with a repeat entry medical visa priced at 1400 dirhams. A new visa was also introduced to allow repeated entry for medical doctors, in an attempt to attract top talent from outside the UAE.
source: http://www.businessweekme.com / Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Middle East / Home> Companies & Industries> Travel & Tourism / by Leila Taha / UAE – September 14th, 2015
