11-Oct-16 Chinese tourists spent USD215 bn overseas in 2015 – including USD10 bn on medical tourism. Chinese are the world’s biggest spenders when travelling, and their splurging has extended towards health and wellness. The factors boosting medical tourism are propelling international property investment as many will be staying in their destination for a longer period of time or be recurring visitors. [image: Juwai]

11-Oct-16 Macao in southern China - renowned as Asia's 'Las Vegas' - has tabled plans to become a hub to make traditional Chinese medicine more standardized and scientific, and to further develop it to enable it to be sold around the world. [image: Xinhua]

09-Oct-16 Medical tourism to Thailand from the UAE is expected to remain strong despite changes to Abu Dhabi health insurance policies. In Apr-16, the Health Authority cut benefits to encourage medical treatment in Abu Dhabi. "We have seen no impact yet of the changes in health insurance policies in Abu Dhabi," said Tanes Petsuwan from Tourism Authority of Thailand. [image: Saeed Khan / AFP]

09-Oct-16 The Manila-based Medical City hospital group is boosting its presence in the UAE, to promote medical tourism to the Philippines. It opened a AED10 mn polyclinic in Dubai in October 2015. It will be followed by more clinics in the city and the Northern Emirates in 2017, mostly through acquisitions. [image: The National]

06-Oct-16 The medical value travel (MVT) industry is a fast growing segment of India's tourism industry, worth USD3 bn with 15% CAGR. However there is significant potential for accelerated growth. While 11 mn people travelled to seek treatment in 2015, only 500,000 travelled to India. MVT could reach USD9 bn by 2020 and establish India as ‘The provider to the world’. [image: DNA]