Medical tourism touted as first FITs set to arrive

2011/06/25 Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said yesterday that with the impending arrival of independent Chinese tourists in Taiwan, he expects medical tourism to attract between 2,000 and 9,000 Chinese every year. "This will create NT$5 billion [US$173.12 million] in revenues," Wang said in an address to an international medical tourism forum sponsored by the Bureau of Foreign Trade, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) and the Institute for Biotechnology and Medicine Industry (IBMI). Starting from Tuesday, the new free independent traveler (FIT) scheme will allow up to 500 Chinese tourists a day to visit Taiwan independently, instead of as part of a tour group. Speaking in his capacity as IBMI founder, Wang yesterday said revenues of the international medical care market in Asia was about US$4.4 billion a year, compared with Taiwan's NT$4.4 billion in revenues last year. "With Taiwan's superior medical professionals, its medical services — which are on a par with those in Europe and the United States — and comparatively lower fees, medical tourism will become a major industry for the country," he said. He said Taiwan could attract independent Chinese tourists for physical checkups or cosmetic -surgery. Taiwan should also relax the restrictions on the length of time Chinese tourists are allowed to stay in Taiwan to allow them time to convalesce after major surgery, he said. TAITRA chairman Wang Chih-kang (王志剛) said that about 3,700 foreign nationals came to Taiwan for medical treatment over the past two years, most of them Chinese. "Language is Taiwan's edge in developing medical tourism. Taiwanese medical professionals can communicate with overseas Chinese and they can also speak English to communicate with non-Mandarin-speaking foreign patients," Wang Chih-kang said. Meanwhile, according to local travel agencies, a majority of the first batch of independent Chinese tourists scheduled to enter Taiwan are young executives from technology companies who have mostly sought accommodation in five-star hotels. Yeh Yu-hsiang (葉宇翔), the inbound department manager of Lion Travel, said the company has a total of 17 people on the FIT program from Shanghai, all aged under 40, with the majority being executives of medium-sized companies or high-tech firms. Many have opted to stay at the Regent Taipei hotel, which is close to major attractions such as Taipei 101, Yeh said. Paul Hsu (許永裕), vice president of South East Travel, said the company so far has about 40 tourists on the FIT program from Beijing. Most of the tourists, aged from 30 to 40, are interested in visiting Ximending (西門町) — a popular gathering place for young people in Taipei's Wanhua District (萬華) — and Yongkang Street in Daan District (大安), where many famous restaurants are located, Hsu said. This could explain why most of them decided to stay at the Taipei Garden Hotel, which is close to both attractions, he said. Other popular hotels among the FIT tourists include the Grand Hyatt Taipei, the Sunworld Dynasty Taipei and the Ambassador Hotel, Hsu said.