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A new web portal will showcase the high quality medical facilities South Africa, and especially Johannesburg, offers visitors seeking health, wellness and medical services – and a holiday.
LIVING in a globally-connected world and being able to jump on a flight and be halfway across the world just hours later means that people are no longer restricted to accessing services such as medical care only in their own country.
Now, there is the option of finding affordable, high quality healthcare anywhere in the world. This is known as medical tourism and South Africa, particularly Johannesburg, boasts a successful medical tourism industry due to high quality facilities and services. To further showcase these, the Medical Tourism Association of South Africa (MTASA) will launch a web portal on 23 February.
“Over the past 10 years, Johannesburg has played host to thousands of visitors seeking health, wellness and medical services – often combined with short holidays either prior to or post their treatments and procedures,” says communication manager at the Johannesburg Tourism Company (JTC), Laura Vercueil.
JTC is one of the stakeholders that will be collaborating with MTASA. ER24, which specialises in medical evacuation, is another one of the companies collaborating on the project.
South Africa has emerged as a medical tourism destination of choice for travellers from other African countries, and the industry is proving to be a niche market with extensive growth potential. “The intention of launching the portal is to bring about initiatives that advocate and showcase South Africa’s world class medical facilities, services and personnel and thus position the country as a premier destination for health, wellness and medical care,” Vercueil adds.
Phelisa Mangcu, acting chief executive officer of the JTC, says the portal will provide numerous opportunities for Joburg. “As a vital travel and medical services hub on the African continent, Johannesburg hosts a large proportion of medical tourists in South Africa.
“In our role as the City of Johannesburg’s destination marketing arm, we are supporting and amplifying MTASA’s efforts by also unveiling our own medical tourism portal on the JTC website to coincide with their launch,” she adds.
MTASA is a non-profit trade association which provides a platform for companies within the industry to share their collective interest. “The launching of the MTASA web portal offers an opportunity to commit to common values – integrity, transparency, accountability, direct communication, sound fiscal management and good corporate governance – that are conducive to the benefits of industry and consumers,” Vercueil says.
The portal will be found at http://medical.joburgtourism.com/. The launch will take place at the Morningside Mediclinic.
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