Dubai: Dubai is expecting over one million tourists by 2020 as it has exceeded its projected target by an annual growth of 18 per cent in this sector, proving that the medical tourism strategy of the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) is working well.
Providing the current figures, Dr Layla Al Marzouqi, director of Health Regulation and the medical tourism project in DHA, told Gulf News: “In the third quarter of 2015, we already had international medical tourist traffic of 434,436,000 people, mainly from Asia, GCC and other countries of the Mena region with an annual revenue of Dh1 billion. The growth is exponential as worldwide sectors like this grow by 12 to 15 per cent whereas we have registered an 18 per cent growth. We will have crossed the 500,000 mark in 2016 and have four more years and there is a good chance we will completely exceed the conservative target we originally had.”
Dr Al Marzouqi added that the top five sectors for medical tourism remained aesthetics, dental, orthopaedic, wellness and fertility procedures so far. and the DHA was looking for more investors who could also bring in innovative ideas into health care in the region. “We are starting a VIP service for investment that will bring in serious, innovative investors and we want them to have a smooth investment opportunity. On our part, we are looking to upgrade our standards and equipment to match world standards and we are improvising constantly,” Dr Al Marzouqi said.
