33,400 foreign patients treated in the state so far this year

According to the New Straits Times, Sarawak received 33,400 foreign patients in the first nine months of this year, generating RM42.2 million (US$10.1m) in medical tourism receipts. Last year the state recorded 44,700 medical tourists, with receipts of RM60.7 million (US$14.4m). Most medical tourists came from Indonesia.

The article quotes the Sarawak Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, who said most of the medical patients were from Jakarta and Pontianak, Indonesia.

Due to the high currency exchange rate of the Singapore dollar, he said, most Indonesian patients preferred to come to Sarawak for medical treatment.

Karim also said his ministry had established a Medical Tourism Coordination Committee to collaborate with hospitals, the authorities and the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) to ensure the success of Sarawak’s medical tourism industry.

He said MHTC would roll out an e-Visa to facilitate the entry of medical visitors in the first quarter of next year.

He said the number of arrivals from January to September this year had fallen by about 13%, compared with the same period last year.

“We recorded 3.23 million visitors for the first nine months and are expecting the figure to reach 4.5 million by the end of the year and expect to achieve RM8.05 billion in tourism receipts,” he said.

“With the launch of Visit Sarawak Campaign 2019, we aim to position Sarawak as a premier tourism destination and expect to receive five million visitors next year.”

Malaysia Airlines has signed a partnership agreement with Sarawak Tourism Board to boost tourist arrivals to Sarawak and raise the profile of the destination. Under the new agreement, Malaysia Airlines and Sarawak Tourism Board will fund a range of campaigns and promotional activities, including digital campaign promotions, to boost domestic and international travel to Sarawak, media to promote sale campaigns on print and taxis and joint-promotional activities with selected travel partners.

Malaysia Airlines also recently renewed its global partnership deal with Tourism Malaysia. The two parties will jointly invest in promoting Malaysia in key overseas markets including China, Australia and the UK.

In 2017, one million medical tourists visited the country, 600,000 of whom were from Indonesia. Top medical travel contributing states are Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Melaka and Sarawak. For an in-depth, independent analysis of medical tourism to Malaysia, visit the Malaysia IMTJ Country Profile.