Until recently, legal restrictions on investment by overseas companies, taxation on medical tourists and limited facilities, meant that Tunisia was limited to a few, mostly local visitors, seeking cosmetic and dental surgery at small clinics. That is about to change. All the restrictions have now been swept away, and the long-planned private hospital targeting medical tourists, will start being built in 2010.
Until recently, legal restrictions on investment by overseas companies, taxation on medical tourists and limited facilities, meant that Tunisia was limited to a few, mostly local visitors, seeking cosmetic and dental surgery at small clinics. That is about to change.
All the restrictions have now been swept away, and the long-planned private hospital targeting medical tourists, will start being built in 2010. Tunisia aims at becoming a destination for medical tourism and spa procedures. A new large international airport is expected to completed and operational by the end of 2009.
Tunisia is soon to boast its first private hospital, built by the Japanese group Tokushukai Medical Corporation, in order to improve the local offer in the field of medical tourism to attract European and Arab patients. The hospital will have an initial capacity of 400 beds. Target countries will include those across Africa, particularly from Chad, Nigeria and Mali.
The Japanese TMC group, with 260 private hospitals, is the third biggest hospital group in the world, and the largest in Japan. In December 2006, Tokushukai ‘s first overseas hospital, Tokushukai Sofia Hospital (1,016 beds) opened in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. For Bulgaria, this was the first new general hospital that has been built in 30 years. The group hopes that the new one in Tunisia has the same appeal and impact as the one in Bulgaria has had.
According to the Tunisian Health Ministry, some 72,000 foreign patients were registered in 2006 mainly from the Maghreb region and Europe. Trade estimates for 2009 vary, but are around 75000.Higher figures you may have seen quoted, include spa visits and other wellness tourism. Most Europeans come for cosmetic surgery or dental treatment, while Africans come for surgery.
Tunisia has 80 private clinics with an accommodation capacity of 2500 beds, and most of these clinics are well developed and with the latest technologies.
Tunisia attracts more and more Brits, Germans, Italians, French, Belgians, Swiss, Portuguese, and Spaniards. The number of foreign patients having been treated in private Tunisian clinics has grown rapidly in the last five years.
Medical tourism in Tunisia has become the countries second highest foreign currency earner, and the second largest employer. Most of the 8000 doctors were trained in Europe or America, so they meet Western standards. Prices are 40% to 60% less expensive than those in Western Europe, even allowing for a stay of one week. Its proximity to Europe makes Tunisia an attractive alternative to India and Thailand, for those who want to avoid long-haul flights.
Another new investment, again believed to be with overseas money, is a planned health tourism complex that will soon be built in the El Khabayat region near Gabes; a coastal town located some 400 kilometres south of the capital. Covering an area of 140 hectares, the complex will comprise several health cure centres using essentially thermal waters for which the area is known. The complex will include hotels, leisure facilities, including a golf course as well as a congress centre.
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