Health and wellness tourism for RP eyed

Hotels and resorts are no longer simply venues for business meetings and other traditional services that include sports activities, but now also as sanctuaries of health and pampering. Forget the swimming pool and tennis courts, savvy travelers want spas.

“Health and wellness tourism” has great potential in the Philippines because of the relatively low cost of health services and our highly skilled and caring doctors and nurses.

The Department of Tourism (DoT) is currently working to develop health tourism in the Philippines by promoting the country’s medical and spa services, which is popular in many other countries for its healthy and therapeutic benefits.

Spas not only provide a competitive and desirable guest amenity, but are a lucrative profit center.

Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon said that health tourism, combining wellness and leisure, will be offered to foreigners, balikbayans and local tourists.

He added that the DoT is coming out with rules to govern the accreditation of spas to regulate and maintain standards of resorts, hotels and destination spas. DoT is also coordinating with top-class hospitals and other medical institutions in drafting rules and regulations for medical tourism.

Gordon said the use of herbal products in these spas will be encouraged to boost the local herbal industry and promote traditional Filipino culture.

“That Filipinos speak fluent English is another plus going for us in promoting health tourism. This is one niché in the market that the Philippines can really tap into, especially with the new inclination of people to take care of their bodies,” he explained.

“The Philippines need not limit itself to exporting world-class doctors, medical technologists to other countries since it would be much better if foreign nationals would instead go to the Philippines for medical services.”

Meanwhile, hotels and resorts are also creating more attractive wedding and honeymoon packages tailored to foreign tourists to complement DoT’s “WOW” or “World of Weddings” campaign.

Gordon went to Japan recently for a sales mission trip where he met with Watabe Wedding, Japan’s largest organizer of overseas weddings.

He mentioned Intramuros and Cebu as possible wedding destinations with packages as low as $2,200 per couple, only a fraction of what it would cost them to get married in Japan. The package includes the wedding ceremony, 4 days/3 nights deluxe accommodations, hotel transfers, wedding dresses, bridal bouquet, give-aways, cake and video coverage.

Gordon stressed on the country’s proximity to Japan, facility in English language of most Filipinos and value for money wedding packages as come-on to would be couples.

Japanese statics say that in 2001, almost 7 percent of the 803,000 newly-weds or more than 50,000 couples had their wedding vows abroad, 55 percent of the arrangements were handled by Watabe.

Hawaii and Guam top the list of preferred wedding destinations of Japanese couples.

Watabe Wedding will send a study team to the Philippines to assess the country’s potential for the Japanese wedding and honeymoon market.

Japan is the country’s second largest market in terms of tourist arrivals. For next year, DoT is targeting to bring in 500,000 Japanese for the “Visit Philippines” campaign.