Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean have a nearly untapped useful resource in health-related tourism. Of program, there are destinations that provide this, but the extent to which we could be benefitting from these kinds of an industry is enormous and not actually getting exploited.
We have concentrated a large amount on health and wellness tourism. In accordance to dobusinessjamaica.com in their ‘Health and Wellness Tourism’ report: “The World Spa and Wellness Summit estimates the dimensions of the health and wellness industry to be a US$438.6 billion worldwide market place within just the broader US$3.2 trillion tourism current market. It additional believed that the wellness tourism current market will increase by 9.1 for each cent for each yr … which is at a better rate than traditional tourism is projected to improve.”
The report implies that the aim is for Jamaica to be in a position to carve out at minimum a person for every cent of that market place for alone in just 5 many years. This would help the nation to realise revenues of a least of US$70 million for every yr and hire “at the very least 1500 people”. If we realize this target, it would suggest substantial development of that sector, which is also very profitable but even now only fulfilling a smaller aspect of our in general opportunity.
This, on the other hand, implies that we have a eyesight and we are moving in the proper route toward that eyesight. Adding health-related tourism – when men and women travel overseas to accessibility healthcare care – to these targets need to be no major problem.
The medical tourism industry is huge. Globalnewswire.com implies that in 2020, it was creating revenue of US$102.6 billion. “The world wide medical tourism marketplace is principally driven by the greater desire for the affordable remedy for various continual health conditions obtainable in the acquiring nations. Often, the therapy of sure diseases is rather high-priced in the property place, consequently, in get to acquire inexpensive and highly developed solutions, people today choose for visiting foreign international locations.
It more signifies that according to Precedent Investigate, “the world-wide clinical tourism market place dimension is projected to hit all around US$286.1 billion by 2030 and with an increasing expansion level – a [compound annual growth rate], CAGR of 10.8 percent from 2021 to 2030”.
As we know, persistent non-communicable illnesses, this sort of as cancer, coronary heart problems, diabetes, hypertension, and stroke, carry on to be a obstacle all over the world. Jamaica is no exception, but we are uniquely positioned to provide holistic companies not just in this department but also for elective and cosmetic techniques. We have quite proficient healthcare employees. 1 of the downsides, even however our products and services may be more cost-effective, is the capacity to use wellbeing insurance policies as nicely as the expediency of payment. This, together with the want to have an interconnected system, can be solved with technologies.
Jamaica is forward of the video game for the reason that it uses online, genuine time overall health insurance policies adjudication – something that is not very obtainable or utilised throughout the world. This usually means that swift and straightforward linkages can be produced with abroad coverage providers that would like to be portion of the clinical tourism sector. Clients will benefit from even much more diminished expenses and peace of intellect, and suppliers will get their payments in a speedy and productive fashion.
INTER-Linked Health and fitness Program
The subsequent important detail would be to have an inter-linked well being method that is technologies driven, obtainable, dependable, and inter-operable. This system would generate a strong place-to-state electronic clinical information system so that each individual health practitioner would have a right healthcare record to ensure continuity of treatment and the ideal and most acceptable cure feasible. We have this engineering in Jamaica and would only want to increase its attain.
Our tourism market is completely created and is one particular of our most prosperous sectors. Coupled with this, a changeover into clinical tourism would be practically seamless. If the hotel sector will come on board, we could also have recovery centres that are joined via the engineering. A patient’s details can be shared within just Jamaica and back to their region of origin to their personal medical doctor wherever they can keep on care on their return home.
This is the potential and some thing that we can execute in a handful of decades. We have all the demanded inputs, and I hope that it will become component of the aims to build both of those the tourism and overall health sectors.
– Doug Halsall is the chairman and CEO of Superior Integrated Methods. E-mail responses to [email protected] and [email protected]
