Kuala Lumpur, 1 May 2019 — Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad has announced that Malaysia expects to receive up to RM1.8 billion in projected hospital revenue from health tourists in 2019.
The result of a boom in medical tourism with health care travellers generating at least RM6 billion in related expenditure, the projection was based on last year’s numbers of RM1.5 billion from more than 1.2 million arrivals.
He stated that compared to the tourism industry which had a growth rate of less than 1 per cent, healthcare tourism saw double-digit growth, making it one of the fastest growing sectors in Malaysia.
The combined revenue has contributed at least RM3 billion to the GDP so far.
He was speaking at the Asia Pacific Healthcare and Medical Tourism Summit 2019 organised by Global Health and Travel. The summit was organised to promote cross-border knowledge exchange on healthcare travel.
