HCM City holds great potential for medical tourism

Deputy Director of the municipal Tourism Department Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa cited statistics as showing the number of foreigners coming to Vietnam for both healthcare and tourism has been rising, generating an annual revenue of some 2 billion USD. 

In 2018, about 300,000 foreigners came to receive medical examination in the country, including 57,000 inpatients, and about 40 percent of them chose HCM City as their destination.

These figures indicate HCM City holds huge potential for medical tourism, Hoa said.

She added according to the World Tourism Organisation, medical tourism is among the future global travel trends. Therefore, developing this type of tourism is in line with the global trends while helping diversify tourism products and attract more visitors to HCM City.

At the workshop, part of the 15th International Travel Expo HCM City, local healthcare establishments introduced traditional medicine along with low-cost and high-quality medical services for tourists.

The municipal Department of Health also introduced a mobile app for searching local healthcare examination and treatment facilities. The English version of this app is expected to debut in early 2020.