Malaysia targets Indonesian health tourism market
A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Melaka, Malaysia
"Is it ethical to profit from sick men and women?" a friend of mine asked during a recent trip to several cities in Malaysia.
"I don't know. But many of them are healthy. They are rich people coming here just for medical checkups or plastic surgery, while enjoying the tourist attractions at the same time," I replied.
Health tourism is already officially sanctioned in many countries, including Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.
Expecting to reap huge benefits, some states in Malaysia are now targeting the Indonesian market, offering lower costs than either Singapore or Thailand.
The services range from general checkups to heart surgery, with the latest technology and equipment and overseas-trained doctors.
"Our services and doctors are as good as in Singapore and we are less expensive then they are. You see, the exchange rate for the Indonesian rupiah against the Malaysian ringgit is better than against the Singapore dollar," said Akbar Bin Ali, the director of the Melaka Tourism Promotion Board.
Akbar said the Indonesia market had great potential, with 90 percent of last year's 47,000 visitors coming to Malaysia's second smallest state for health tourism reasons being Indonesian.
He said that many of the Indonesian tourists came from Padang, West Sumatra, Pekanbaru, Riau, and Medan, North Sumatra as these cities had direct flights or ferries to cities in Malaysia as well as no departure tax.
"With Indonesia's population of 220 million people, we hope that more and more Indonesian people will come here, such as people from Jakarta or Surabaya," said Akbar.
Malaysia has a population of 25 million people with 1.7 million people living in Melaka.
Several hotels, such as the A'Famosa Resort in Melaka or Cititel Hotel in Penang, have pioneered health tourism packages.
A'Famosa's sales manager Pochan Bong said that for only RM 350 (US$94) a couple could stay two nights in the hotel -- which has various theme parks, such as Water World, a Zoo, and Cowboy Town -- and have a general checkup at the privately-run Mahkota Medical Center.
"If the tourists want to seek further medical treatment, they can stay here longer. We offer special rates for them," Pochan said.
Due to the potentially lucrative market, Mahkota's business development manager Vincent Wan said that his hospital has established a number of representative offices in Indonesia, including in Padang, Pekanbaru, and Harco Mangga Dua in downtown Jakarta.
Mahkota's strategy in cooperating with hotels and setting up representative offices has also been applied by Kuala Lumpur's newest medical center, Health Scan Malaysia.
Health Scan Malaysia's director Lee Chong Seng said his center would also introduce high-technology medical diagnostic services and facilities. This medical center owns South East Asia's first 64-slice multi-detector CT scanner.
"The CT scan can produce images of the smallest cardiac, pulmonary and peripheral vessels in less than 10 seconds," Lee said.
He said the center, which was designed differently from a hospital and was located on the second-floor of an office building, could provide the results of a complete medical checkup in less than a day.
Meanwhile, a patient of the Mahkota center said that she and her family could enjoy tourist destinations in Melaka after she had been treated at the center.
"I couldn't go anywhere if I was treated in Jakarta," said Nany, a resident of Padang, West Sumatra, who was being treated for sinus problems.