[OPINION] Urgent to put the Philippines on the medical tourism map

At a recent tourism event in Subic Bay, I spoke about how the Philippines could attract investment into sustainable tourism, healthcare, and medical tourism.

Subic has hotels, recreation, natural assets, and a free-port environment. But having these assets is not the same as having a product that international visitors recognize.

This distinction matters when assessing the Department of Tourism (DOT) under former secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco.

Frasco has often been criticized for emphasizing branding, events, destination marketing, and promotional campaigns. Some criticism is understandable. Promotion cannot substitute for better infrastructure, more tourists, and higher tourism revenues.

But her strategy should also be understood from a politician’s perspective.

The DOT does not control many of the bottlenecks determining whether tourism succeeds. Airports, roads, immigration, healthcare regulation, and investment approvals are divided among multiple agencies and levels of government. A tourism secretary cannot easily become the gatekeeper of these constraints or claim sole credit for resolving them.

Promotion, however, is directly within the department’s reach. It creates nationwide visibility, strengthens relationships with local officials and industry groups, and offers repeated opportunities to build political capital across regions.

The incentives were therefore stacked toward promotion. This should be acknowledged rather than dismissed as superficial. Frasco was using the tools most readily available to her.

Her challenge was to convert promotion into substance — turning visibility into investable destinations, bookable products, and measurable visitor spending.

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Virtually absent from the regional map

That challenge is particularly urgent in medical tourism, where the Philippines remains virtually absent from the regional map.

The country has capable doctors, internationally trained specialists, English-speaking nurses, modern private hospitals, competitive prices, and a strong culture of hospitality.

Yet few international patients instinctively think of the Philippines when considering treatment abroad.

Take a relatively affluent Singaporean seeking intravenous wellness therapy, an aesthetic procedure, executive screening, or another elective service over a weekend.

Bangkok may immediately come to mind. The patient can fly out on Friday, receive treatment, stay in a comfortable hotel, and return on Sunday. Thailand has built an ecosystem in which healthcare, aesthetics, wellness, hospitality, and travel are packaged and promoted together.

Comparable doctors and facilities may exist in Manila. But few Singaporeans think, “I should fly to the Philippines for treatment.”

That is not necessarily a failure of medical capability. It is a failure of positioning, packaging, distribution, and promotion.

South Korea is associated with advanced cancer care, fertility medicine, robotic surgery, and minimally invasive procedures. Thailand is known for international hospitals, aesthetics, surgery, dental care, and wellness. Singapore is associated with complex tertiary care, while Malaysia has built a coordinated international-patient industry.

In the Philippines, some of these capabilities may exist, but the country does not yet own any major medical-tourism category in the minds of international patients.

Medical tourism cannot promote itself

This is why medical tourism requires more promotion, not less.

Conventional tourism is already saturated with festivals, roadshows, destination launches, familiarization tours, and advertising campaigns. These activities are politically attractive because they generate immediate visibility.

Medical tourism receives far less attention because it is harder to organize. It requires coordination among hospitals, regulators, immigration authorities, insurers, airlines, hotels, and foreign referral partners.

Individual hospitals can market internationally, but no single provider can build the Philippine market alone. Hospitals compete with one another, have uneven overseas networks, and may hesitate to invest before demand has been demonstrated.

Government must therefore coordinate with the private sector.

Effective collaboration between the DOT and the Department of Health is central. The DOH must support clinical standards, patient safety, hospital readiness, accreditation, and continuity of care. The DOT must package and promote credible offerings to international patients, insurers, employers, and referral partners.

Immigration agencies must facilitate patient entry. Investment agencies can attract capital into hospitals, recovery facilities, wellness destinations, and supporting infrastructure. Airlines, hotels, facilitators, and local governments must also participate.

Promotion should target not only individual patients but also the institutions directing patient flows: insurers, employers, medical-assistance companies, embassies, referral agents, and foreign health systems.

A narrowing Middle Eastern opportunity

The Middle East should be a priority market, but the opportunity will not remain open indefinitely.

Gulf countries have historically sent patients abroad, often accompanied by relatives and supported by government or insurance funding. But Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and neighboring states are rapidly building specialist hospitals and domestic capabilities in cancer care, complex surgery, diagnostics, and rehabilitation.

As these capabilities improve, fewer patients will need to travel. Those who still do will have more choices and higher expectations.

The Philippines cannot assume Middle Eastern patients will always seek treatment overseas. It must enter the market through a coordinated government-private sector campaign. That campaign requires concrete products: transparent treatment packages, Arabic-speaking coordinators, culturally appropriate services, suitable accommodation for families, and reliable post-treatment arrangements.

At present, the Philippines is not promoting its medical capabilities in the Middle East or other target markets with the consistency and scale required to become a serious destination.

From capability to market

The Philippines does not need to compete in every medical-tourism category immediately.

It should select segments where it can credibly win — perhaps rehabilitation, executive screening, wellness, retirement-related care, selected elective procedures, or specialties in which individual hospitals can demonstrate strong outcomes.

Location will matter.

Subic, Bulacan, Cebu, or other areas near major urban centers and airports could become short-stay destinations where patients from neighboring countries fly in for treatment over a weekend and return home soon after.

Unlike conventional tourism, Philippine medical tourism remains underdeveloped and under-promoted. Government should invest more in developing credible medical-tourism products while coordinating sustained promotion with the private sector. – Rappler.com

Dr. Jaemin Park is an adjunct professor at the University of the Philippines College of Public Health and works across Southeast Asia on healthcare financing, medical innovation, and public sector reform.