News & Updates

Dubai medical tourism industry generated over AED 1.4 billion in 2016

The Dubai medical tourism industry generated more than AED1.4bil­lion for the emirate in 2016. The city received 326,649 medical tourists, representing an increase of 9.5 per cent over the previous year.

The most popular areas of treatment for medical tour­ists last year was orthopaedics, dermatology and ophthalmolo­gy. In 2016, the largest market for the emirate was Asian med­ical tourists, who accounted for 37 per cent of visitors. Arab and GCC countries were the second largest market, accounting for 31 per cent of tourists and vis­itors from Europe amounted to 15 per cent of the total.

Director of the Dubai Med­ical Tourism Project, Dubai Health Authority (DHA), Dr Layla Al Marzouqi says that the strategy for attracting more medical tourists goes beyond just figures and that DHA is targeting partnerships with pri­vate entities.

“Besides targeting growth in numbers we are also concentrating our efforts in enhancing our partner portfo­lio. We have recently included regions first holistic health and wellness resort in our portfo­lio. This will provide the health tourist a unique opportunity to avail the complete wellness of­fering in Dubai. We have also partnered with Health Bank in a strategic initiative to enhancing the customer expe­rience by offering end-to-end services right from research of doctors and health facilities to treatment, accommoda­tion, translator services and post-treatment follow-up.”

In a bid to strengthen their position in the medical tourism market, Dubai has participated in a number of global events. The Medical Tourism Council (MTC) represented the emirate at ITB Berlin 2017. One key market for Dubai is Africa and in March, Dubai Health Experience (DXH) participated in the Dubai-Africa Partnership for Better Health Roadshow, with visits to Nigeria and Gha­na. Fifteen healthcare providers attended, along with a number of travel agents, who promoted the Dubai as a destination and the city’s international medical expertise.

In April, DHA also partic­ipated in the 5th Shanghai International Private Health Management Expo 2017. The organization also held a series of roadshows across the GCC, in association with the Ministry of Economy, under the umbrella of the Visit UAE campaign.

In 2015 Medical Tour­ism Council initiated a collab­oration with Dubai Statistics Center to collect patients’ data from the private health sector, outpatient clinics and poly clin­ics. The private healthcare sec­tor was mandated to collate key information on their patients, such as their age, gender na­tionality and city of residence. Private centres are required to submit data periodically to the Dubai Statistics Center’s e-source, electronic system. The statistics are then used to develop a greater understand­ing of medical tourism trends, so that Dubai can meet visitors’ needs as the medical tourism sector expands.