Malaysia's Medical Tourism Revenue May Hit RM4.2 Billion By 2020, Says Lee

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 6 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian government aims to generate RM4.2 billion (US$1.02 billion) in medical tourism revenue by 2020 through improved services, as well as aggressive marketing activities, says Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Lee Chee Leong. He said in order to meet the target, the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) had been tasked with developing more high-end and high-quality services in the country to attract Asian medical travellers, particularly from China. "Last year, the industry registered RM914 million (RM220.9 million) in revenue from 859,000 medical travellers, and this year we are targeting one million tourists," he said when launching a therapy and rehabilitation centre, Your Physio Sdn Bhd, here Thursday. Most of the travellers were from Indonesia, India, Japan, the United Kingdom and Australia, said Lee, adding that the country had also generated interests from China, Vietnam, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. "Among medical tourists' favourite destinations are Penang, Melaka, Johor and Kuala Lumpur," he said. Lee also said the government would continue to offer more incentives and tax exemptions for private hospitals to boost the medical tourism industry. Meanwhile, Your Physio Managing Director Joshua Tan said the centre provided a wide-range of medical services, including pain management and neurological rehabilitation. -- BERNAMA