What to do to attract international visitors to Ho Chi Minh City for health care and medical treatment?

On November 24, the Department of Tourism in coordination with the Department of Health of Ho Chi Minh City held a conference to review the development of medical tourism products in the area in the period of 2017-2023 and the implementation direction for 2024-2030.

Ms. Bui Thi Ngoc Hieu, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, said that 2023 has seen the rise of medical tourism products with many activities being implemented such as: 30 tour programs combining medical tourism and health care suitable for domestic and international tourist markets; organizing the promotion and advertising of medical tourism products to attract tourists in the Cambodian market and surveying and learning from experiences in developing medical tourism models in Thailand...

According to experts, the potential for medical tourism in countries in the region, including Vietnam, is huge.

Institute of Traditional Medicine introduces medical tourism products to tourists at an event

Mr. Nguyen Van Vinh Chau, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, said that Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia are leading countries in the region in attracting a large number of tourists for medical treatment.

For Vietnam, Ms. Ta Thi Tu Uyen, Deputy Director of Product Department - Vietravel Tourism Company, commented that there is a lot of potential in developing medical tourism, focusing on periodic health care; recovery and convalescence; surgery and specialized treatment, especially physical therapy - musculoskeletal - traditional medicine; dental care; infertility treatment...

Some published statistics show that each year, medical tourism can attract about 300,000 visitors; 57,000 people treated with revenue of 22 billion USD, of which 40% of visitors come from Ho Chi Minh City.

However, medical tourism in Vietnam is more suitable for international tourists than domestic tourists. However, medical tourism products are not yet widely known to international tourists.

Deputy Director of the Department of Tourism Bui Thi Ngoc Hieu also assessed that Ho Chi Minh City's medical tourism products still lack human resources fluent in medical languages; the promotion of medical tourism products is not professional and regular. Most hospitals in the city do not have international certificates for foreign patients to use global insurance; there is no close connection between medical facilities, travel agencies, hotels to form a complete product chain...

With the goal of making Ho Chi Minh City a healthcare center in the ASEAN region, Mr. Nguyen Van Vinh Chau proposed implementing 7 groups of solutions. Specifically: forming a center for training high-quality medical human resources; promoting research and development, innovation in the healthcare sector; developing modern infrastructure, implementing high-tech medical zones; developing medical tourism, combining modern medicine and traditional medicine; providing all types of quality healthcare; building a network of specialized facilities from intensive to grassroots healthcare; developing specialized techniques to meet disease models.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/kinh-te/lam-gi-de-thu-hut-khach-quoc-te-den-tp-hcm-cham-soc-suc-khoe-chua-benh-20231124134554829.htm