MEDICAL tourism is likely to take a backseat to health and wellness programs because the Aquino administration intends to focus on those booming tourism sectors, an official said Sunday.
Tourism Undersecretary Daniel Corpuz said most of the Philippines’ major hospitals were internationally accredited, but only a few foreigners were going here for treatment.
“So we wound rather concentrate on non-invasive procedures or the health and wellness [programs] than procedural operations,” Corpuz told reporters at the sidelines of the National Tourism Statistics conference 2012 in Manila.
He made the statement even as Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez said his department would be pushing the municipality of Oslob in Cebu as a tourist destination because of its famous whale sharks. Tourists visiting the area and Donsol in Sorsogon could swim with the giant but docile creatures.
Corpuz described medical tourism was a complicated market segment, and therefore hard to push.
The Tourism Department launched its medical tourism program in 2007 to boost the country’s tourism industry. It pushed aesthetic surgery, complex orthopedic procedures and cancer and cardiovascular care, among other things.
The department said the country’s beaches and resorts, world-class facilities and friendly people would entice foreigners to come here for treatment.Macon Ramos-Araneta
source: http://www.ManilaStandardToday.com / February 20th, 2012
