Members of a 17-person tour group from China’s Jiangsu Province lauded Taiwan’s medical advancements yesterday during a weeklong fact-finding mission on Taiwan’s medical tourism.
The group arrived on Sunday and is to stay in Taiwan for six days, during which 12 of them will receive full-body non-invasive health checks at Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital (新光吳火獅紀念醫院) in Taipei as well as stay at a five-star natural hot spring resort in Taoyuan County and enjoy tailor-made nutritional meals throughout their stay.
Some of the medical procedures the group will undergo include MRI, PET and 256-slice CT scans to check for signs of cancer, cardiovascular and cerebral diseases — the three leading causes of death in Taiwan.
The entire package costs about 12,800 Chinese yuan (US$1,911), twice the price of a regular tour package, said Alex Hung (洪子仁), president of the Shin Kong Medical Club (新光健康管理).
OPPORTUNITIES
Group member Qin Jianwei, a real estate investor and tour operator who has been to Taiwan five times, said Taiwan’s medical tourism has enormous business opportunities in attracting Chinese tourists.
“I have received similar checkups in China and the environment and the service in Taiwan are far better than what we have in China,” said Qin, who brought his entire family of five on the trip.
Zhang Minghong (張明紅), a seasoned tour operator of 21 years, predicted that Taiwan’s medical tourism would become one of the biggest attractions for middle to high-income Chinese tourists.
CHINA’S CHOICE
Although other countries, such as India, Thailand and Japan, are all promoting medical tourism, Zhang said, Taiwan is the best choice for Chinese tourists because “there is no language barrier, the cost is more reasonable and there is a sense of warmth and familiarity between Chinese and Taiwanese people.”
FUTURE VISITS
He said two such tour groups from Nanjing and Jiangsu Province are expected to arrive in Taiwan in the next few months and that in the future, at least two Chinese medical tour groups could come to Taiwan each month.
Both tour operators also urged the Taiwanese government to expedite its approval of entry by individual Chinese tourists, saying that doing so would greatly increase Chinese tourists’ interest in Taiwanese medical tourism.
Department of Health Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) said at a medical conference in July that Taiwan should capitalize on its “excellent medical resources and attempt to attract patients from China among other countries,” warning that if Taiwan failed to do so, good Taiwanese doctors and hospitals might end up relocating to China to take advantage of the booming demand there.
‘SOFT POWER’
Hung also urged the government to put more effort into marketing Taiwanese medical tourism on a global scale, calling it one of the country’s major sources of “soft power.”
At present, the Shin Kong Medical Club makes as much as NT$20 million (US$640,000) each year from Chinese tourists seeking medical services.
The figure makes up about 2 percent of the center’s total revenue and Hung expressed hope that with the influx of Chinese tourists, the number will increase by at least 5 percent by the end of next year.
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