According to Arabian Healthcare Group CEO Raza Siddiqui, the UAE has the potential to become a leading medical tourism destination.
Speaking at a recent conference in DUbai, Siddiqui said: “I'm a very strong advocate of the UAE as the next big medical tourism destination. The alternative medical tourism destinations which have come up have a lot of similarity to the UAE, especially Dubai. If you look at Thailand or Singapore, these destinations were very well accepted international tourism destinations and what they did was get international quality healthcare providers thereby attracting medical tourists.”
“Today, Dubai attracts 10 million tourists according to DTCM figures and we have international quality healthcare providers - you have Cleveland Clinic, you have Johns Hopkins - even local brands have come up very well,” added Siddiqui.
Siddiqui urged hoteliers to see the potential the medical tourism market offered in addition to traditional leisure tourism.
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“There is huge potential for collaboration, cooperation, co-branding, joint marketing, because no patient comes alone – he comes with family, and anyone who comes and spends US $5000 on healthcare spends equal amount on tourism because the family will stay at a hotel, they will go shopping, they will eat out, so there is huge potential,” he said.
Carlson Rezidor director of business development Elie Milky agreed with Sidiqqui saying: “Hotels and serviced apartments with a medical complex or healthcare city simply complement the hospital – they are not competitors; they simply complement the other component of a mixed use development.”
“Speaking on behalf of the hospitality sector, we do encourage medical tourism because it adds to the already developed destination of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and UAE as a whole and it brings more business and contributes to the 2020 vision of Dubai,” he said.
Milky also revealed the group, which operates the Radisson Blu brand was exploring opportunities for properties in medical complexes in the region.
“We've got hotels in diplomatic quarters, we've got hotels in business parks and we would love to have a hotel in a medical complex,” he said.
“We are looking at a couple of opportunities for the Radisson Blu brand specifically as Radisson Blu residence or serviced apartments. So we are starting to see a growing trend with hotels being developed within medical cities, we see a growing trend for serviced apartments within medical complexes for markets such as the GCC, especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which is something we will definitely go for,” added Milky.
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