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PLAN TO BOOST SECTOR

Officials at the ceremony

Dubai medical tourist numbers to hit 1.3m in 2021

DUBAI, May 4, 2016

A total of 1.3 million medical tourists are expected to visit Dubai in 2021, Dubai Health Authority (DHA) has revealed.

Bolstering the medical tourism sector in Dubai is part of the Dubai Health Experience (DXH), launched by His Highness Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council of Dubai, last month.

The project aims to strengthen medical tourism in the city, attracting 500,000 medical tourists from abroad, making Dubai a favorite global destination for medical tourism.

To fulfill the projects goals a DXH group was formed with 25 members— consisting of medical facilities in Dubai and other partners offering logistic services— who will provide their services to medical tourists.

During a ceremony where the partners held their first meeting and were given their membership certificates, H.E Humaid Al Qatami, chairman of the board and director-general of DHA said the authority is keen on reaffirming its partnership with all parties supporting DXH.

“We are certain that our partners are putting in all their efforts to ensure the support of this project. We appreciate all the contributions made by each partner,” he said.

In 2015, 630,831 medical tourists visited Dubai’s 26 hospitals, out of which 332,472 came from within the UAE and 298,359 (46 per cent) came from abroad.

A grand total of Dh1,004,930,535 ($273.5 million) in revenues was made from medical tourists abroad in 2015.

This number is expected to increase by 13 per cent for the next five years. This means that by 2021 a 1,313,360 medical tourists are expected to visit Dubai out of which 692,191 are internal and 621,169 will come from abroad.

Al Qatami commended Emirates Airlines, the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, Dubai Statistic Center and General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs for their support.

Dr Layla Al Marzouqi, director of health regulation and Dubai Medical Tourism Project said the meeting between the DXH group members helped discuss a number of vital issues and the way forward.

“The General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs has pledged to facilitate and make medical tourism visa procedures smoother to support and elevate medical tourism in Dubai. The meeting with the partners also helped outline the plan and the steps needed in the next phase,” she said.
 
DXH also collaborated with Dubai Statistic Center in compiling medical tourism statistics from Dubai’s 26 hospitals.

A report by the Dubai statistic center revealed that the majority of the tourists who visited Dubai for medical treatment in 2015 came from Asian countries (43 per cent), 29 per cent came from the GCC, 15 per cent came from European countries, seven per cent came from African countries and five per cent came from America. Most of the tourists sought out treatment in Dubai for osteoporosis, fertility, dermatology and plastic surgery. - TradeArabia News Service
 




Tags: Dubai | tourism | Health | medical |

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