Friday, December 29, 2006 Dad downplays projection of 30-M tourist arrivals By Grace L. Plata
IT'S pure fantasy.
This is how Davao Councilor Peter Laviña described the National Government's projection of attracting 30 million tourists in the next five years under its "medical tourism" program.
"The people behind these fantastic figures should be the first to go to have brain surgery here," he wrote in his weblog at http://funchain.com/~peterlavina.
He added, "With just over two million tourists each year, tripling that number because of 'medical tourism' is a projection that is just way off."
Laviña, City Council chair on trade, commerce and industry and former city tourism officer, told Sun.Star that he e-mailed Tourism Secretary Ace Durano and Health Secretary Francisco Duque to air his apprehensions over the "unbelievable figures."
Health Undersecretary Jade del Mundo earlier revealed that starting next year the country will attract from 20 to 30 million foreign medical tourists and generate a $2 billion income within the next five years.
Del Mundo said most of the patients will come from the US and China and with no insurance coverage to speak of, will find medical services in the Philippines much cheaper.
But Laviña disputed this projection saying other countries like Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and India offer similar services and have a much better track record of preparing and receiving millions of tourists, having the greater possibility of being preferred by the target market.
He added officials who believe that "we can triple our annual visitor arrivals purely on the medical tourism program are hallucinating."
Medical tourism is the act of traveling to other countries to obtain medical, dental, and surgical care.
The term was initially coined by travel agencies and the media as a catch-all phrase to describe the rapidly growing industry where people travel to other countries to obtain medical care, which may also include a leisure aspect of traveling on such a medical trip.
