Wellness industry grooms Cebu as vanity destination

Noting the huge interest among foreigners including Filipino “balikbayans” availing of beauty enhancement procedures in Cebu, the Cebu Health and Wellness Council (CHWC) is geared to position Cebu as the vanity and dental destination.

Department of Trade and Industry Cebu Provincial Office director Nelia F. Navarro said that Cebu will quantify the number of vanity and dental clinics in Cebu in order to make these as banner services for the broad medical tourism market.

Because of this, Navarro, who is also a board member of the CHWC, said that 20 dental practitioners have already signified interest to join the CHWC membership and include their dental clinics in the list of international promotion for health and wellness.

However, Navarro said the group still has to finalize its database on the list of services offered by hospitals and specialty clinics, in order to have as well organized marketing collaterals to strong push Cebu as medical tourism destination.

“We are waiting for the official survey form from the three top hospitals in Cebu on what types of services are being availed of by those Filipinos working abroad, including medical tourists. But beauty or vanity and dental services are easily among the top choices,” said Navarro.

According to Navarro, Cebu has to identify its (strong) niche in medical tourism. So far, she said vanity and dental services have emerged strong among foreigners, and Filipino citizens residing or working abroad.

Other countries that are successful in attracting the multi-billion dollar medical tourism market have already identified their expertise or banner service. India for instance is strong in heart surgery, Singapore for its good Cancer Centers, while Thailand is considered as a competitor for the Philippines, specifically Cebu, as it is also strong for its vanity and dental services.

Navarro admitted that because of lack of market intelligence among players in the health and wellness sector, some services offered in Cebu are more expensive than other countries.

For eye laser service for instance, Eye clinics in the Philippines, or in Cebu charge from P60 thousand to P40 thousand on the procedure, while good Eye Clinics in the United States, are only charging an equivalent of P30 thousand in Philippine peso.

While Cebu has identified its niche in attracting medical tourism market, industry players also need help especially in market intelligence.

“We should highlight our competitiveness, especially in terms of costs. It is important that players will be informed constantly on the trends and movement and charges of the medical services offered by our competitor countries,” Navarro said.

In order to capitalize on the emerging global health and wellness industry, Navarro bared that the CHWC, through the assistance of an expert from the Center for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI)-Netherlands, will be drafting an export marketing plan that will serve as a benchmark for local stakeholders in the latter’s promotional campaign in foreign markets.

In Asia, medical tourism has raked US$120 billion in revenues for 2006, a big improvement from US$40 billion it earned in 2000. India is now the number one destination for medical tourists around the world.

Total package for one medical tourist, is pegged at US$28,000, depending on medical procedure, this already include accommodation, vacation package among others.

Every medical tourist can save at least US$77,000 for this amount, if they were to have their medical services done in other countries like Europe or United States.

Aside from vanity and dental services, medical tourists, including balikbayans are also availing other medical services such as cardiac surgery, executive check up, MRI, and CT Scan, among others.