Dubai’s focus on medical tourism has prompted the opening of an upscale hotel targeting the niche segment.
Time Hotels, which manages seven midscale and budget hotels in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, said that it would open its first five-star property close to Dubai Health Care City (DHCC).
Located near Wafi Mall on Sheikh Rashid Road, the 277-room Time Royal Hotel will have two rooms on each floor accessible to the guests with disabilities, besides wheelchair-friendly access to public areas.
The Dubai-based Awtad Investment company is spending Dh200 million on the hotel, which is expected to open in 2016.
There are more than 260 properties within 5 kilometres of DHCC including the luxury Raffles, Grand Hyatt and Dunes hotel apartments.
At DHCC’s 120 outpatient medical centres and diagnostic laboratories, about 15 per cent of the patients are medical tourists. Last year, the complex catered to 1 million patients, up from 400,000 in 2010. During the first half of this year, nearly half of them came from Arabian Gulf countries. The rest were from across Middle East, Europe and Asia.
DHCC’s medical tourism agency Salamatak is expanding its focus across Africa, Middle East and East Europe.
“Not all medical tourists want to stay close to the hospitals,” said Ibrahim Abu Gharbieh, the managing director of Salamatak. “Some want to stay next to malls and metro stations, some others prefer to stay in beach hotels, and some are price conscious.”
The preference varies as well if they are travelling alone or with family.
Medical tourists to Dubai usually seek cosmetic surgeries such as nose correction or liposuction, as well as infertility treatments and dental procedures among other treatments.
The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) has a target of 170,000 medical tourists in 2016, expecting to generate revenues of Dh1.18 billion.
In 2012, an estimated 107,500 medical tourists visited DHA’s 23 hospitals, five day-surgery facilities and 1,181 clinics, generating Dh652.7m. The top source markets were Russia, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UK, India and Pakistan.
Dubai has some of the most expensive room rates. The average daily room rate in Dubai this year is expected to touch Dh920.97, up 5.7 per cent, according to research company STR Global.
But security and infrastructure, coupled with shopping and leisure facilities in Dubai are expected to buoy the medical tourism market.
DHA is expected to seek applications this month from hospitals to participate in medical tourism packages, which would include costs of treatment, visa, hotel stays and even recreational activities for accompanying family members.
Time Hotels has five more properties in the pipeline, including two hotel apartments in Abu Dhabi and two hotels in Egypt.
ssahoo@thenational.ae
Follow The National's Business section on Twitter
