Govt eyes medical tourism as good income earner – Abg Johari

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KUCHING: The state government is serious in tapping revenue from medical tourism as there is a demand for our healthcare services from neighbouring Kalimantan Indonesia.

In saying this, Minister of Tourism Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg also disclosed that he had just came back from Kalimantan with representatives from two well-established private hospitals in Kuching to promote their services.

He said the response they received was very good and encouraging for Kuching to be promoted as a medical tourism destination.

“With the low cost flight by Kalstar and Batavia Air and now MASwings, a lot of people from the city of Potianak can come here to Kuching for medical treatment,” he told reporters on Wednesday night after feting officials from
Sabah Ministry of Tourism to dinner on a river cruise.

However, its success would depend very much on flight connectivity, he added, while agreeing that it could be a major contributor to the country’s overall tourism revenue.

He was also responding to questions on the liberalisation of advertising guidelines for healthcare in order to promote medical tourism as announced by Ministry of Health recently and how Sarawak can play its role in contributing to the sector.

On Wednesday, The Borneo Post carried a Bernama report that Malaysia was targeting revenue of some RM430 million from healthcare travel this year, a 22 per cent increase from last year’s figure.