Medical tourism forum to kick off on October 26

AMMAN — The Global Healthcare Travel Forum (GHTF) 2019, held under the patronage of His Majesty King Abdullah, is set to kick off from October 26-28.

Organised by the Private Hospitals Association (PHA), in cooperation with the Global Healthcare Travel Council and the Arab Hospitals Federation, the forum seeks to provide medical tourism stakeholders around the world with the opportunity to meet, network and strengthen cooperation in the field, according to a PHA statement.  

President of the Private Hospitals Association Fawzi Hammouri said that more than 700 participants representing commissions specialised in healthcare travel and insurance, along with pharmaceutical manufacturers, will take part in the Middle East and north Africa's largest forum dedicated to healthcare travel.

The two-day event will open up an opportunity to further develop the outcomes of GHTF 2017, one of which was the "Amman Declaration", aimed at expanding the scope of the medical tourism sector in Jordan to eight internationally recognised segments, he added.

Known as Health Travel 8, the segments include traditional medical tourism, dental tourism, wellness tourism, spa tourism, culinary tourism, sport tourism, retirement tourism and accessible tourism.

The Kingdom claims all these sectors, Hammouri pointed out, referring to the advantages of bolstering these fields, among them increased revenues from tourism.