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Israel’s tourism is booming and on course for a record 3.5 million tourists this year. There are many reasons for Israel’s current success in tourism, but the main factor is that it has shifted from positioning itself as a sun and sea destination competing with countries such as Cyprus, Egypt and Malta.

Israel now seeks tourists looking for added value: the Holy Land, the life of Jesus, history, culture, and religion. Israel’s tourism marketing has become more aggressive with a hard-sell strategy to sell Israel as a venue.

The health and tourism industries are discussing promoting Israel as a destination for medical tourism from developed countries. At present there is sporadic and not very effective marketing by individual agencies and hospitals that effectively compete with each other rather than promoting Israel generally. The consensus is that they need to join forces under a single brand for the country’s entire medical system, rather than marketing separately.

Israeli hospitals have a hunger for medical tourism, as most need the money. Those already involved in medical tourism are the country’s largest hospitals: Sheba Medical Center, Ichilov Hospital; Rambam Medical Center; Hadassah University Hospital, and Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva. Two smaller private hospitals, Assouta Medical Center and the Herzliya Medical Center, are also active.

Israel has specialist expertise in oncology, fertility treatment, bone marrow transplants and orthopedics. Israeli health care prices are also lower than in many Western countries, but more expensive than Asia or Eastern Europe. What could be a problem is that hospitals charge 50% more for treating foreigners than they receive for treating Israelis. Israel would also have to compete with locally active competitors in Turkey.

Hadassah Medical Organization reports that revenue from medical tourism in 2009 was NIS 60 million, compared to a starting point in 2003 of NIS 3.5 million. Hadassah actively seeks patients abroad for its two hospitals in Jerusalem. Assouta Medical Center reports four-fold growth over the past four years and now gets NIS 50 million a year. Sheba Medical Center reports NIS 60 million in 2009, a 50% increase on 2008.

Most medical tourists in Israel come from Eastern Europe. Russians and Ukranians can find doctors in Israel who speak their language and understand their culture. A recent conference suggested that Israel would prosper by targeting the USA and Western Europe. But there are problems with that scenario; Israel has yet to penetrate either market, and public opinion in many European countries is, after the commando raid on peace ships in international waters, very anti-Israel. Israel currently gets virtually no medical tourism business from the USA, UK or Canada; and after several recent political incidents, Israel is far from popular in the UK.

source: treatmentabroad.com