The activities of the Medical Tourism and Hospital Health Conference kicked off in Tunisia from 25-27 November. Under the supervision and patronage of the Tunisian Ministries of Health and Tourism, It is held in strategic partnership and sponsorship from the Egyptian African Businessmen Association (EABA).
Dr. Yousrey ElSharkawi, head of the association, said earlier, The conference will be attended by 20 countries, more than 55 speakers, 50 exhibitors and 5,000 participants. The conference is an opportunity for interaction, participation, exchange of visions, and identification of opportunities in medical and health tourism services.
ElSharkawi added that North African countries have a great opportunity in the medical tourism sector, especially Egypt and Tunisia. They have a great opportunity in this field and are competing for the 27th and 28th place in the medical tourism sector internationally. He explained that the field is wide for the two countries and North African countries to make a qualitative leap in this vital field.
He stated that this sector is still awaiting much in the African continent, which has a population of one billion and three hundred million people, and that the search for medical tourism services from the people of the continent is approximately 15 million African medical tourists, with a return of close to 30 billion dollars annually.
ElSharkawi expressed his hope that work and coordination between all strategic partners, whether African governments, banks, foreign financing agencies, investment funds, or private investors, will support the expansion of this vital sector and reorient the map of tourist flows, which have always been heading to Jordan, India, Turkey, and Europe. Eastern.
He pointed out that Egypt attached special importance to medical tourism, and the head of state directed the government to work on integration between the various economic sectors. And modernizing and diversifying the economy’s sources. In this sector, Egypt announced in June 2019 the Egypt project to establish the largest city for medical tourism in most countries of the Middle East and Africa, with investments exceeding 20 billion pounds.
Elsharkawi stated that Tunisia has worked to create a new source of national income and maximize the gross domestic product by linking tourism with hospitalization through the planning of the full medical city, which is preparing to increase high-quality health services.
ElSharkawi stressed that a number of general and important points are being discussed in the Tunis conference, on top of which is how to implement the directions of African leaders and governments in support of new plans to expand this activity with increasing events, events, workshops, training cadres and activating the media machine to serve this activity and shed light on the promising investment opportunities for this sector, which would contribute to improving living standards on the continent.
