Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed a reciprocal green lane travel corridor between the countries. This is good news for Malaysia, as Indonesia is their main source of medical tourists.
Malaysia is planning to reopen tourism by the second quarter of 2021, and the Ministry of Tourism and other ministries are exploring travel corridor arrangements with neighbouring countries and other nations in Southeast Asia. They have recently agreed a reciprocal green lane travel corridor with Indonesia.
The government is negotiating on bilateral deals with:
- Australia
- Brunei
- Indonesia
- Japan
- New Zealand
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Thailand
- Vietnam
This is good news as Indonesia is the main source of medical tourists and the other countries on this list make up most of the medical tourism source market.
The discussions are however complicated as they involve considerations of health, immigration, data tracking, and on-going monitoring by various state agencies.
Tourism Malaysia is promoting the country as a safe destination with the Malaysia Truly Asia campaign and heavy use of social media channels. The Malaysia Year of Healthcare Travel 2021 (an initiative co-ordinated by the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council), the nation’s first international healthcare travel campaign, is also due be run this year.
Malaysia will only allow in medical tourists from a list of green zone countries, and they can enter Malaysia without needing prior approval from the Immigration Department.
Phase one of medical tourism recovery only allowed the entry of foreign healthcare travellers who were critically ill patients requiring treatment at an intensive care unit or high-dependency unit. Permission was only given for travel via air-routes and only one caregiver allowed to accompany the patient.
The second phase, due in mid-2021, includes medical tourists from:
- Australia
- Brunei
- Japan
- New Zealand
- Singapore
- South Korea
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