Medical Tourism – The new buzz word in the tourism industry. You may have you been asking yourself, what is it exactly? In simple terms, Medical Tourism is access to borderless care. This could be for a number of reasons such as cost, improved healthcare, cutting edge technologies, superior hospitality, experienced specialists and individualised care as major drivers.
Over the years we have seen Medical Tourism growing in countries such as Turkey and Mexico with a number of people travelling from across the continent seeking medical and surgical interventions. The global medical tourism market size was valued at USD4.0 billion in 2021 and it is expected to expand at a compounding annual growth rate of 32.51% from 2022 to 2030. Why then is South Africa not capitalising on the gap in this market especially when we are renowned leaders for medical care in Africa? SA has some of the best hospitals in the continent with a multidisciplinary team of doctors that are highly trained by industry leaders in our many academic hospitals.
We are also fortunate to be users of the best technology and advancements in medicine in the continent. The first heart transplant in the world was performed in Cape Town by Christiaan Barnard which has created an excellent foundation for many innovations that came after that. Our hospitals function as centres of excellence therefore we pride ourselves with impeccible patient experience.
This is how the two founders, Elizabeth Johnson and Zazinhle Mthembu realized a gap in the market and formed Medical Tourism Africa; which is an agency based in Sandton, Johannesburg. MTA is passionate about access to quality healthcare and patient experience. Their business model is centered around the idea of creating value through a combination of services that they offer.
Travelling to a foreign country for medical care can be stressful. With a vision centered around excellence, MTA wants to ensure that their clients are able to travel to South Africa effortlessly, get treated by the best industry professionals and recover in absolute comfort. MTA, takes care of every detail of the client’s experience from dates of treatment, securing accommodation, chauffer services, flight bookings, treatment and specialist recommendations and tourism.
The two founding members are young women who are well-travelled seasoned professionals with extensive experience working with Specialists, Hospitals, and International Business which affords them the added advantage of understanding the needs of their client and therefore are able to recommend only the best options for their clients.
The services offered by medical tourism Africa include but are not limited to; Cosmetic surgery at large, non-surgical aesthetics, chronic disease management primary healthcare, mental wellness, neurological assessment, gynae, ophthalmology, and urology. With only just a few months in operation MTA has reached great strides in the medical tourism space and have appointed the assistance of PR and marketing agency KWKreatives & Co to grow their brand in South Africa and areas of interest. Their aim is to be a household name for medical tourism in Africa with a strong team of driven women driving the services.
