Category Archives: Travelling For Surgery Abroad / Medical Surgery Overseas

Thailand’s Fabulous 40+ Photo Contest Looking for Ladies: Fit, Fabulous, and 40+

Posted on September 8, 2013 | Comments Off on Thailand’s Fabulous 40+ Photo Contest Looking for Ladies: Fit, Fabulous, and 40+

BANGKOK :

As part of its international “Find Your Fabulous” wellness and medical tourism campaign, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is unveiling a friendly global competition intended to salute ladies who are still fit and fabulous after their 40th birthdays.

The Fabulous 40+ Photo Contest invites women from around the world to submit images showing off their fabulous form, and the contestant showing the most youthful, age-defying appearance will be rewarded with an exclusive 3-day Find Your Fabulous trip to Bangkok.

For 40+ foxes fixing to put their likenesses proudly on display, the excitement begins on Facebook. Candidates become fans of ThailandMedTourism and the Find Your Fabulouscampaign; then, they submit their most fabulous photos – with their name, age range (40+, 45+, 50+), current location, and a photo description. Submissions should show the fresh face and figure, confidence, poise, and charisma that defines the modern, fabulous woman today in her 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond.

The winners of the Fabulous 40+ Photo Contest will be determined by the number of “votes.” The one with the most votes will be the winner, followed by the first and second runners-up respectively. The winner will receive a 3-day/2-night exclusive health and beauty package for herself and one friend.

In addition to a full medical checkup, dermatology treatments, and a spa package, the grand prize also includes two roundtrip air tickets and a deluxe 2-night stay at the stylish 5-star Sofitel So Bangkok, with daily breakfast. The first runner-up will receive the health & wellness packages for two as well as accommodation, while the second runner-up will receive the health and wellness packages for herself and a friend. All the awards – 3 awards for 2 persons each – bring the total value of the prizes to over USD $30,000.

The contest runs between now and the 30th of September, 2013, with the winners’ announcement via Facebook scheduled for the 3rd of October. Awards are redeemable between the 15th of October and the 15th of December, 2013.

The TAT hopes that the Fabulous 40+ Photo Contest will further illuminate Thailand’sthriving medical and wellness industry and the wealth of top-quality, convenient, and affordable aesthetic treatments on offer for international tourists of all shapes and sizes.

For more information, please visit www.facebook.com/thailandmedtourismfanpage

For media information, please contact findyourfabulous@thailandmedtourism.com or Tel +6688 640 2910.

source: http://www.sys-com.com / Sys-Con Media / by PR Newswire / source: Tourism Authority of Thailand / August 28th, 2013

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Posted in Associations/Organisations/Government/NonGovernment, Health /Medical Treatment For Overseas Treatment, Medical Tourism/Health Tourism, Travelling For Surgery Abroad / Medical Surgery Overseas

Out-of-box suggestions on Kerala tourism from panel of MPs

Posted on September 5, 2013 | Comments Off on Out-of-box suggestions on Kerala tourism from panel of MPs

House panel says cruise tourism should be part of Incredible India campaign

HouseboatCT05sept2013

Spice route tourism and tea tourism are among the options suggested by a Parliament panel for Kerala , to attract international and Indian travellers.
A place where tourism makes for nine per cent of the gross state domestic product, Kerala is being projected as a one-stop location for at least eight types of tourism.

A report by Parliament’s standing committee on transport, tourism and culture, headed by CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, has listed cruises, wellness, medicine, wildlife, tea, spice route, heritage and film shooting as areas for developing tourism in Kerala.

Cardamom, pepper, nutmeg, tea, coffee, clove, ginger and turmeric might assume a new meaning if spice route tourism is promoted. The committee has backed an initiative in this regard from the state. It would not only revive India’s heritage but give “a larger foothold for garnering world tourism revenue”. The other countries in the spice route would include Afghanistan, Myanmar, China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Malaysia, Pakistan and Portugal. Kerala Tourism has proposed to link 31 spice destinations in the world, to create a new travel experience.

Also, the cruise potential of Cochin port could be included in the Incredible India campaign’, the panel has recommended. Other ports should also be explored for cruise tourism opportunities, it has said.

Pitching Munnar as one of the prime tourist destinations in India, the committee has said the widespread tea plantations are the region’s unique selling proposition. Tea tourism could be a niche area in Kerala to woo tourists for a special experience. “The tea estates and the bungalows just add another tweak to this perfect serenity.”

Although wellness tourism is already there in the state, the committee says this should be developed as a unique brand to attract tourists from over the world. “The committee would like the state and central government to come up with solution-providing ideas so that wellness tourism in Kerala is developed as a brand.”

To promote medical tourism, the panel has sought support from the Centre, especially around areas such as ayurveda, sidha and unani treatment. Also, medical visa issues need to be addressed.

While praising the state government initiative to develop wildlife and ecological tourism in Kerala, the committee wants vehicular traffic to be restricted inside the Periyar Wild Life Sanctuary. It has also recommended pollution-free and less noisy boats at the sanctuary.

As for film shooting in the state, the committee has recommended a directory of potential locations. The state should also hold workshops and tours for film production executives.

Seeking reduction in tax levels, the committee has noted that Kerala’s tourism revenue in 2012 was Rs 20,430 crore with foreign exchange earnings of Rs 4,548 crore.

ATTRACTIONS AT GOD’S OWN COUNTRY
A report by Parliament’s standing committee on transport, tourism and culture has listed these areas for developing tourism in Kerala

* Cruises
* Wellness
* Medicine
* Wildlife
* Film shooting
* Tea
* Spice route
* Heritage

source:  http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> Economy & Policy> News / by Nivedita Mookerji / New Delhi – August 29th, 2013

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Posted in Associations/Organisations/Government/NonGovernment, Health /Medical Treatment For Overseas Treatment, Medical Tourism/Health Tourism, Medical Treatment/Health Treatment Subject By Speciality, Reports,Features, Statistics, Travelling For Surgery Abroad / Medical Surgery Overseas, Wellness Tourism

MEDICAL TOURISM TO BRAZIL : Your vacation in a Brazilian hospital

Posted on September 4, 2013 | Comments Off on MEDICAL TOURISM TO BRAZIL : Your vacation in a Brazilian hospital

Is it a resort or a hospital? Tourists and patients from all over the world think it’s both.

Forget the beach. How about going to Brazil to visit a hospital? Growing numbers of tourists are doing just that.

This is one of the most reputable and expensive hospitals in Brazil. It’s out of reach for the vast majority of Brazilians, but like other top medical centers here it’s been attracting a growing number of foreign patients. Medical tourism is growing worldwide and Brazil wants a bigger chunk of this market.

BrazilhealthCT04sept2013

Kelly Matos Idelfonso, Hospital Sirio-Libanes, said, “Health services have been growing a lot over the last years. Hospitals invested a lot in technology, so we are have some of the best facilities in our part of the world. Most foreigners come to Brazil for cosmetic surgery, but our hospital is also a reference in cancer treatment.”

Tourists traveling for medical reasons spend between 40 and 60 billion dollars a year—and the market is growing around 20 percent a year. Brazil receives about 50 thousand medical travelers a year from different parts of the world—mostly from neighboring Latin American countries like Ecuador, Bolivia and Uruguay and mostly for cosmetic surgery.

Reporter: “Foreign patients who come to Brazil for treatment can be roughly divided into two groups. There are those from rich countries – mainly Europeans and North Americans who come here because medical procedures are cheaper – and there are those from poor and developing nations, from Latin America and Africa, who come because of the top quality hospitals that exist here for those who can pay.”

Currently Brazil has 25 hospitals accredited by the Joint Commission International—an organization that certifies the quality of medical services worldwide. Sao Paulo is the most sought after destination.

Bernardo Ignarra, Sao Paulo Turismo S.A., said, “We have an occupancy rate between 80% and 100% in the eight JCI accredited hospitals of Sao Paulo. So this is actually something that has to be sorted – this health system needs to be expanded if we are to grow in medical tourism. But we now these hospitals are planning to invest about one billion dollars over the next two years to expand their facilities and services.”

Brazil is still far from able to provide quality health care for most of its people, but in yet another reminder of this country’s stark income inequality, Brazil has become a popular destination for wealthy foreigners looking for good medical services.

source: http://www.eturbonews.com / eTN Global Travel Industry News / August 21st, 2013

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Posted in Health /Medical Treatment For Overseas Treatment, Medical Tourism/Health Tourism, Reports,Features, Statistics, Travelling For Surgery Abroad / Medical Surgery Overseas

Stricter visa rules driving away medical tourism from India

Posted on August 28, 2013 | Comments Off on Stricter visa rules driving away medical tourism from India

Prathap C Reddy, the cardiologist who built the Apollo Hospitals chain valued at $2 billion over three decades in India, says he’s seeking growth overseas as the visa policies drive medical tourists to rivals.

Apollo Hospitals is considering hospitals in Indonesia, Cambodia and Tanzania, Reddy said in an interview at his Chennai office. Growth in the number of visitors seeking treatment for heart ailments, cancer and orthopaedic surgery is falling short of Reddy’s estimates as India’s special visa for patients forces them to visit an immigration office, he said.

India, which offers the world’s biggest savings for US medical tourists, is losing clients to Singapore and Thailand as visa rules and greater awareness of drug-resistant germs that spread from the country scare away patients. Government neglect means India may fail to tap the $40 billion market that’s expanding 25% a year, said Josef Woodman, founder of the guidebook Patients Beyond Borders.

“They’ve done everything to ruin our prospects of becoming a medical tourism centre,” Reddy said. “I once said India should become the global healthcare destination — now I’m swallowing those words. It could grow 10-fold in the next five years, if only the government would facilitate it, the way others have.” Apollo forecasts the number of overseas patients seeking treatment at its hospitals in India will increase by about 23% to 80,000 in the year ending March 31.

India attracted as many as 350,000 medical tourists in 2012 compared with 250,000 a year earlier, according to Patients Beyond Borders. Thailand treated as many as 1.2 million overseas patients last year, while Singapore had 610,000 medical visitors, according to the guide.

Out Patients

Fortis Healthcare set up a hospital in Singapore last year, and in 2009 bought a stake in a hospital in Mauritius. Apollo too has hospitals in Mauritius and Bangladesh. “India has been fairly neglectful of this industry,” said Woodman “It makes a lot of sense and Indian hospitals like Apollo and Fortis are well-positioned to seek a foothold in parts of the world where people have no access to quality care.”

Apollo and its competitors are also expanding into developed markets to tap patients who are looking for treatment at a lower price. Bangalore-based cardiologist and businessman Devi Shetty has expanded his Narayana hospital chain to the Cayman Islands, where he will open a 140-bed cardiac surgery centre early next year.

US patients can save 65-90% by seeking treatment in India ranging from a coronary artery bypass to rhinoplasty, according to Woodman. The average cost of a hip replacement in India, which has emerged as a “thrift” destination for orthopaedics and cardiac surgery, is one-fourth of that in the US, he said. Medical tourism to India will increase if the nation allows faster clearance for patients through immigration points, and guarantees the processing of medical visas within 24 hours, said Vishal Bali, group chief executive officer of Fortis Healthcare, in an interview. Gurgaon-based Fortis sees about 11,000 international patients a year, Bali said, compared with 65,000 at Apollo in the year ended March.

“India has great potential to be a big player in global health care,” Bali said. “India is the hub of our entire health-care delivery system” with the company using hospitals in India to serve patients from South Asia, Middle East and the West, and Singapore to treat patients from Southeast Asia, he said.

Did the Visa Help?

India in 2005 introduced a special visa for medical tourists, to bolster the industry. However, restrictions imposed by the visa have made it harder for them to enter the country for medical treatment, Reddy said. The visa, valid for one year, requires patients to register with the Foreigner Regional Registration Office within two weeks of their arrival, a process that is “insulting” and physically taxing for people suffering from serious health problems, Reddy said.

The permit allows three entries, making it harder for doctors to provide follow-up treatment and deal with complications, he said. The medical visa is also costlier than a tourist visa and isn’t available in nations in Africa, which accounts for a majority of the patients seeking treatment in India, according to an Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management report.

The rules mean “India is losing these patients to Thailand,” the report said. V Vumlunmang, a joint secretary in the ministry of home affairs, didn’t respond to e-mails and phone calls to his office, seeking comment.

Superbug Scare

The medical journal Lancet three years ago reported the spread of a superbug with a gene dubbed NDM-1, short for New Delhi etallo-beta-lactamase-1, a reference to the city where a Swedish man was hospitalised with an infection that resisted standard antibiotic treatments. Reddy said concerns about drug-resistant bugs were excessive. The market for medical tourism in India will grow at an annual rate of 30% to Rs 95 billion ($1.55 billion) by 2015, according to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.

Thailand earned 31.12 billion baht ($995 million) in the year ended March 31, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand. “Medical tourism became a priority for Thailand and Singapore,” said Fortis’ Bali. “Both have sort of taken on that opportunity at the highest levels within the country, because they felt there was an economic upside for them by supporting this trend. We haven’t really taken it on as a national priority.”

source: http://www.articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com / The Economic Times / Home> Collections> Visa and Immigration / by Bloomberg / August 15th, 2013

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Posted in Reports,Features, Statistics, Travelling For Surgery Abroad / Medical Surgery Overseas

Goa to promote health-and-wellness tourism

Posted on August 26, 2013 | Comments Off on Goa to promote health-and-wellness tourism

Goa needs more high-end hotel rooms to hope for big-ticket tourists, says a draft investment policy prepared by a government-appointed task force that says the state can position itself as a health and wellness tourism destination.

(Goa to promote health-and-wellness…)

(Goa to promote health-and-wellness…)

The Goa Investment Policy 2013 that has just been put into the public domain for suggestions has also outlined the importance of medical tourism in taking forward Goa’s story.

“The government  targets granting permissions to starred hotels, across categories, to a cumulative additional capacity of around 8,000 beds in the next five years,” says the policy, authored by a task force headed by Atul Pai Kane, the Goa chairman of the Confederation of Indian industry (CII).

The report also says that attracting high-end visitors will also mean creation of infrastructure and facilities which in turn will provide gainful employment for the state’s youth. The current disparity in the proportion of low-end to high-end hotels  will be made up by encouraging more boutique and luxury hotels in the state, the draft policy says.

The increased focus on high-end tourists also comes with the inevitable requirement of creating high-value tourism products, which should include oceanariums, theme parks, shopping malls, entertainment centres, high-end water sports and adventure sports, the policy says.

At present Goa attracts nearly 2.8 million tourists annually, out of which over half a million are foreigners.

Setting its sights on the emerging segment of health and wellness tourism, which attracted over 1.3 million people to India in 2013 alone, the draft policy suggests that Goa has “good basic healthcare infrastructure” to cater to the segment.

But more needs to be done, the draft policy says.

“While medical tourism is growing in Goa, the government is keen to attract investments  in new facilities and draw more medical tourists to Goa for high-end and complicated procedures. For medical tourism to take off in a big way, uniformity and quality of services offered are critical,” the report says, recommending several steps which the Goa government could take to beef itself up in the medical tourism sector.

The recommendations include setting up of large healthcare facilities to meet the needs of increasing medical tourists, mandatory registration with the Directorate of Health Services and the Goa Medical Council for facilities offering medical tourism and a rate card and details of facilities to be offered.

Also meted is a government portal with details of each healthcare facility and which will serve as a liaison between patients and doctors and medical facilities.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Life & Style> Travel> Medical Tourism / by IANS / August 19th, 2013

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Posted in Health /Medical Treatment For Overseas Treatment, Medical Tourism/Health Tourism, Reports,Features, Statistics, Travelling For Surgery Abroad / Medical Surgery Overseas, Wellness Tourism