Valle del Cauca aims to become, by 2027, the premier destination in Colombia for international medical tourism, surpassing Bogotá.
This is the goal set by the Valle del Cauca Government, the Cali City Hall, and business leaders from the tourism and medical sectors, who yesterday signed a strategic alliance to boost this market.
Last year, Valle del Cauca received 4,300 international visitors for this purpose, representing 23% of the national total. Meanwhile, Bogotá received 5,500 tourists, accounting for 28%.
The mayor of Cali, Alejandro Eder, confirmed that today Colombia is ranked 25th in medical tourism worldwide, and from that ranking, Cali is the second destination for this tourism coming to the country, after Bogotá.
‘For us to recover Cali, we need to revive the economy and the prestige of our city and, obviously, to do that, it was necessary to recover tourism,’ he pointed out.
Valle del Cauca will aim to become, by 2027, the premier destination in Colombia for international medical tourism, surpassing Bogotá. This is the objective set by the Valle del Cauca Government, the Cali City Hall, and entrepreneurs from the tourism and medical sectors, who yesterday signed a strategic alliance to boost this market. Mayor Alejandro Eder signed an inter-institutional agreement to promote medical tourism in Cali and Valle. Last year, Valle del Cauca received 4,300 international visitors for this purpose, which represents 23% of the national total. Meanwhile, Bogotá received 5,500 tourists, accounting for 28%.
Mayor of Cali, Alejandro Eder, confirmed that today Colombia is ranked 25th in medical tourism worldwide and from that ranking, Cali is the second destination for this tourism coming to the country, after Bogotá. ‘For us to recover Cali, we need to revive the economy and the prestige of our city, and obviously to do that, it was necessary to recover tourism,’ he pointed out. Cali and Baja California signed a tourism agreement. This is the alliance for tourism promotion signed by the Cali Tourism Secretariat. He explained that to achieve this, they proposed three axes: cultural tourism, ecological tourism, and medical tourism, which activates an entire value chain that includes air tickets, city transport, hotel industry, gastronomy, and commerce, in addition to generating employment for healthcare personnel.
In 2023, according to data provided by Situr Valle del Cauca, of the more than 4,000 people who came for medical tourism to the region, 24.20% were from the United States, followed by Panama and the Netherlands, with 9% and 8%, respectively. Aesthetic medicine, general dentistry, general medicine, psychology, oncology, and orthopedics, among others, are the most requested specialties.
In fact, for dentistry, data from the Economic and Competitiveness Unit of the Cali Chamber of Commerce reveal that in the city there are about 134 cosmetic dentistry clinics and 96 orthodontic clinics.
Additionally, there are six internationally accredited clinics, three of which belong to the public sector. It’s worth noting that the Valle del Lili Foundation and the Imbanaco Medical Center are ranked among the top 40 in Latin America.
Indeed, the governor of Valle, Dilian Francisca Toro, highlighted that the city not only has human talent but also quality infrastructure in medium and high complexity institutions.
‘We have all the specialties to attract tourists, and it is very important to make these potentials more visible and to attract many more patients. This is a value chain of great importance for reactivating the economy of the department,’ she pointed out.
According to data from the Valle del Cauca Clinical Excellence Cluster of the Cali Chamber of Commerce (CCC), Cali is strengthening in the development of business models associated with the management of international patients and health travels, a behavior that impacts the international scene.
‘For us, from the Chamber of Commerce, this is a very important sector, with a potential for growth from the point of view of tourism, but it also strengthens the advantages that the region already has in terms of clinical excellence,’ said Ana María Castillo, Director of Competitiveness and Internationalization at the CCC, who added that the work now must be aimed at further strengthening the value chain and a much more concrete and coordinated marketing strategy.
Castillo also noted that for 2023, Cali achieved $200 million in medical tourism revenue. ‘In 10 years, the growth of this sector could be up to 300%,’ she stated.
Mabel Lara, Secretary of Tourism for Cali, agreed that ‘there is a lack of institutional framework to lend weight to this very important bet which, in addition to the economic impact it may have, is to showcase the human talent the city has. We will work hard to make the phrase that Cali will be the Houston of Latin America a reality.’
Julián Franco, Secretary of Tourism for Valle, highlighted that Cali and the region have a great competitive advantage with the costs of medical services, which are lower here.
‘We want to work with the tourism value chain to make it more competitive, for which we must select the key markets that are already mapped out and will be included in the statistics of the Tourism Observatory,’ he said.
María Fernanda Sancho, Regional Director of Procolombia, emphasized that as Cali is a cultural and biodiverse destination, it becomes more attractive, as many choose it not only for medical treatment but also to enjoy these other attractions.
News taken from: El País
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