Access Tourism NZ TOURISM FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES, SENIORS, AND AGEING BOOMERS IN NEW ZEALAND AND WORLDWIDE

Indian hospital operator Fortis Healthcare has agreed to purchase a 23.9% (US$687 million) stake in Singapore-based Parkway Holdings.  This could lead to a major shakeup in the global health-care industry. So writes Bruce Einhorn in the Bloomberg Business Week.  Medical Tourism, which occurs when a person leaves their own country to seek medical treatment in another country, is a growing trend.  Nearly 150,000 Americans travelled abroad in 2007 for international medical care, and numbers drastically increased throughout 2008 and 2009.  Such treatment could be cosmetic or health related.  In Asia, Singapore has the best reputation for doctors and hospitals, and Parkway is well regarded.  India has for some time now had ambitions to be a major player in the medical tourism market and its hospitals are generally much less expensive than those in Singapore or other medical-tourism destinations such as Thailand or the Philippines. For instance, a hip replacement that costs $43,000 in the U.S. could cost $12,000 in Singapore and just $9,000 in India, writes Einhorn. Single heart bypass surgery, depending on severity, may cost an average of $25,000 to $40,000 in the United States, while an individual travelling to destinations such as India may receive such care for approximately $10,000.   By buying the Parkway stake, Fortis has now positioned itself to become the regional leader in Medical Tourism.  There will be a strong presence in India, where Fortis has 46 hospitals  for the most price-sensitive patients, and a new base in Singapore for higher-end customers aiming for more luxury.

New Zealand is missing out on Medical Tourism as there seems little government resolve in developing this market.  In fact, the most recent Ministry of Tourism figures for medical visits to NZ show that such visits have remained at around 0.01% of our total visitor count for the last seven years.  Our neighbours, Australia, held their first Health and Wellness Tourism conference in September 2009.   At that conference, it was discussed how Health and Wellness tourism is estimated to be worth in excess of US$1 trillion and is one of the fastest-growing drivers in the travel industry.  Ruth Grau, Springboard Vacations USA and Medtral NZ has stated that New Zealand has a potential of 2000 medical tourists a year ( Inside Tourism 742, June 19, 2009), and explains why New Zealand is attractive to medical tourists.   In addition, Dr. Hans Raetz, who is involved in the development of a Southern Cross private hospital in New Zealand tourism hotspot Queenstown says that there is a real possibility for medical tourism at the resort (Travel Memo 24 March 2009).  In fact, the Tourism Industry Association of New Zealand, in its brief to the incoming Minister of Tourism in December 2008, stated that the “wellness market (has) the potential to attract high value visitors and would benefit from target marketing’.  Meanwhile, Medical Tourism “has not been something that has been considered’, according to Associate Minister of Tourism Jonathan Coleman (Inside Tourism 742, June 19, 2009)