Dubai: Germany is wooing medical tourists from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and offering medical students opportunities to study in Berlin.
Berlin, which has more than 80 hospitals, is already a popular destination for people in the region seeking medical treatment, with heart surgery and diabetes treatment being the most in demand.
Burkhard Kieker, chief executive of Visit Berlin, the city’s tourist service agency, who was in Dubai on Tuesday, said that there were around 10,000 visitors from the GCC in Berlin in 2014, up 27 per cent compared with 2013.
Guests from the Arab countries spent 126,137 nights in Berlin from January to October 2014, up 29.4 per cent over the same period in 2013. The average length of stay of GCC visitors is 3.9 days, according to a statement from Visit Berlin.
“We have so many patients. They want to go back,” Kieker said.
Patients from the UAE normally travel to Berlin with members of their family. They spend an average of €9,000(Dh37,084) for a medical treatment, he said.
Medical tourism accounts for less than five per cent of the city’s tourism revenue, which currently touches €12 billion.
