Malaysia beefs up health tourism budget in bid to attract more patients

It allocated $4.77m in 2019.

The Malaysia Health Tourism Council (MHTC) was allocated US$4.77m (MYR20m) in the country’s recently-released national budget.

This comes on back of Malaysia’s aggressive drive to attract more medical tourists. The number of medical tourists in Malaysia has surged in recent years, jumping from just 641,000 in 2011 to 921,000 in 2016.

Sarawak alone has received 33,400 foreign patients in the first nine months of the year, generating $10.07m (MYR42.2m) in medical tourism receipts.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has also urged healthcare providers to turn medical tourism into a major income driver for the country’s economy. Indonesian patients are among Malaysia’s largest markets, government data reveal.