PENANG will enhance promotion of its medical tourism sector to several countries this year, Bernama reports.
State tourism and creative economy committee chairman Wong Hon Wai said some of the new markets the state’s medical tourism sector was eyeing included the Middle East, Central Asia and Asian countries like South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.
He said various efforts, including having more direct flights, were being actively carried out to attract more medical tourists from these countries to Penang.
“Most of our medical tourists now are from Indonesia because Penang has frequent flights to four cities, namely Aceh, Medan, Jakarta and Surabaya.
“Our target is to open new markets beyond these four cities.
“We have flights to and from Jakarta but not Bandung, so we are working on having more flights from there (Bandung),” he told reporters after opening the Penang Economic, Education and Environment Forum in George Town.
Wong said Penang was looking at new markets to promote its medical tourism as there were many flights to China, Hong Kong and the Middle East countries.
He said Malaysia, especially Penang, was the preferred choice of patients from abroad seeking healthcare due to its renowned specialist doctors and highly trained nurses available.
He added that Penang generated 45% of Malaysia’s medical tourism revenue and was top in the sector.
