Taiwan Travel Agents Jump On Medical Travel Bandwagon

Taiwan travel agencies are positioning themselves to capitalize on the country’s medical travel market as the Taiwanese government and healthcare industry promote medical travel by focusing on quality treatment and low costs.

Mainland China is expected to be the primary market for Taiwan’s growing medical travel market. The market is expected to receive a boost from recent agreements between the two governments that will enable individuals from the People’s Republic of China to travel to Taiwan for medical treatment on their own rather than being restricted to group travel on a set itinerary.

Dr. Richard Wu of the 18-month-old Taiwan Task Force for Medical Travel said his organization’s priority is to promote Taiwan as a brand name in medical travel and promote individual hospitals and their services. The task force is targeting five specialties for medical travel; hip replacement, liver transplantation, reproductive treatments, cardiovascular surgery, and craniofacial reconstruction.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is also a major focus for Taiwan’s budding medical tourism industry, including Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture, and Tui na (a form of massage). Taiwan has standardized research procedures to refine and improve traditional medicine, and many of its hospitals have TCM specialists.

Agent Involvement

A number of Taiwanese travel agencies have already staked a claim in the developing travel segment, setting their sights on the potentially huge market for medical travel from mainland China.

Taiwan’s Grand Travel has developed packages that combine elements of the country’s medical travel offerings, from the latest Western procedures to traditional Chinese medicine, with activities that tourists want, including resort stays and sightseeing, according to Grand Travel chairman Jeff Chu.

Chu told Travel Market Report he believes Taiwan has several distinct advantages it can leverage to position itself as one of the world’s top medical travel destinations, including its geographic position with ready access to mainland China, Japan and other Asian countries. The country’s medical infrastructure also features advanced technology and well-trained  medical professionals, and costs are lower than those in the U.S. and many other Asian countries.

In addition, Taiwan develops and refines traditional treatments at its Chinese medicine institutes, which will attract customers from Mainland China.

Another Taiwanese travel agency, Red Lion Travel, opened a medical travel branch 18 months ago, according to general manager Sammy Yen. Red Lion’s approach to the market was to partner with a large private hospital chain, Chung Gung Medical Foundation, which caters to the global Chinese community.