In an effort to promote Korea to one of the world’s most competitive medical tourism destinations, Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) is organizing and holding the ‘Korea Medical Tourism Evening’ on 5th of December 2012 in Intercontinental hotel Abu Dhabi.
This event will provide more than 100 expected participant with the chance to discover variety of Korean medical tourism products.
Korea, generally regarded as an industry-oriented country, is also one of the fastest growing nations in medical tourism sector, welcoming 122,297 medical tourists from across the globe last year.
The level of medical expertise in Korea is known to be comparable or surpasses to that of America, Particularly in the areas of spinal treatment whether with surgical care or with traditional Korean Medicine, prostate diseases, diabetes/obesity treatment, hip replacement and plastic surgery, these are counted among the best in the world.
Abu Dhabi and Dubai health care authorities had signed an MOU with Korean health care authority last year, as a result of which hundreds of Emirates patients have been sent to Korea in recent months.
Mr. Seung Hyun Hwang the Regional director of KTO Dubai, commented,”The hospitals in Korea enjoy world class standard with medical personnel using the latest in medical technology to cutting edge medical equipments in patient treatment.”
“We can assure quality medical services with almost 70% compared to USA and Europe,” he added.
Since the opening of its branch office in Dubai in 2004, KTO has endeavored to promote Korea to Middle East medical travelers as a must-visit destination, and this medical tourism event was part of the organization’s continued marketing efforts to bring more Arab medical travelers to the country.
In November 2012, Korea recorded 10 million arrivals for the first time with an increase of 14.9% compared to previous year. The Middle East arrivals was recorded at 91838 tourists until end of September 2012, a 19.3 % increase over same period last year and the GCC arrivals were recorded at 11054 tourists for the same period, an increase of 20.1% over previous year. Tourists from UAE recorded the highest number of arrivals among GCC residents with a growth rate of 32.1% compared to previous year.
Since the year 2010, KTO has been even more aggressive in the Middle East region promoting collaborative medical tourism by organizing road shows in Dubai and Beirut for the first time. It was done in partnership with Rotana TV. It was the first opportunity for residents in Middle East to interact directly with Korean hospitals and discover a whole range of medical tourism products surpassing excellence in technology, treatment and traditional medicine.
The Middle East, with an average annual outbound growth rate of 5.8%, is the fastest growing outbound tourism market in the world, and KTO hopes that by introducing medical tourism in this region, they can except a new choice of medical travellers from this region.
To make Korea even more friendlier to Arab patients, Korea has made successful inroads into personalized services for Muslim/Islamic patients, like implementing guidelines in the aspects of clinical care, food services, religious observances, apartment type of accommodations, translation services and much more.
The participating Korean doctors and hospitals are as follows:
Jae Hee Cho, Doctor of International Clinic, Jaseng Hospital of Oriental Medicine.
Dr. Joon-Dong Chang, Head of Bone & Joint Center Hallym University Dongtan Sacred Heart Hospital.
Mr. Warren Jang, Wooridul Hospital for spinal disorder in Dubai
KTO, with the support of some of the best hospitals in Korea also unveiled its plans to provide free medical treatment to underprivileged Arab children as part of its ‘Korea Medical tourism – Giving Back’ initiative. The visiting Korea delegation is scheduled to visit hospitals in Abu Dhabi and the Dubai Health care city.
source: http://www.ameinfo.com / Home> News> Co. News / United Arab Emirates / Thursday, December 06th, 2012
