Future Medical Tourism Team Discuss Boosting Medical Tourism in Jordan Abu-Ghazaleh: The Success of the Team's mission lies in developing procedural steps in a fixed timeframe

AMMAN – In compliance with the vision of His Majesty King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II, , HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, founder and chairman of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Global (TAG.Global), called for the formation of a high level team to handle the 'Future Medical Tourism’; a team that  which brings together experts, specialists and leaders to discuss the appropriate means for   promoting medical tourism in Jordan. 

The established team includes a number of high-ranking dignitaries that include: Dr. Firas Al-Hawari, Minister of Health, Mr. Nayef Al-Fayez, Minister of Tourism, Dr. Bandar Al Fuhaid, the Arab Tourism Organization President, and Brigadier Dr. Youssef Zureikat, the Director General of the Royal Medical Services, in addition to specialists in the field of medical and tourism services.

The team held a meeting on the sidelines of the 7th Medical Tourism World Summit, Conference and Expo, that was organized in cooperation between TAG.Global and the Pioneers Road Company.

During the meeting, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh stressed Jordan’s important role represented by the Ministries of Health and Tourism as well as the Food and Drug Administration, in  controlling healthcare costs and expenses, as well as considering the potential of establishing specialized departments within the relevant institutions to carry out this monitoring task.

 Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh affirmed the importance of addressing the challenges that the medical tourism is experiencing, giving special consideration to innovation in this sector, through procedural steps related to the work of the team and within a fixed timeframe. He, further, indicated that such steps start by analyzing internal and external environment, opportunities and challenges associated with the various areas of medical tourism.

Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh also underscored the importance of undertaking the required steps to control variating pricing and to encourage innovation in pharmaceutical fields with particular attention to intellectual property rights, and the legal issues associated with pharmaceutical inventions.

Furthermore, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh stated that TAG.Global is ready to devote all its services to contribute to building the team’s clear vision, in addition to strengthening Jordan’s role on the map of medical tourism in the region. This contribution is intended to develop solutions to address the decline in the tourism sector and to compensate for losses caused by the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

For their part, the team members emphasized the importance of studying the reality of the medical tourism sector in the Kingdom, the challenges it faces, and the competitiveness of the Jordanian market in this sector compared with the neighboring countries, particularly the  possibility of making this type of tourism within the special packages offered to tourists. That is in addition to studying the technological developments associated with the sector and supporting entrepreneurial projects in the medical tourism field. 

At the end of the meeting, the team members agreed on developing a well-shaped action plan in a fixed timeframe with implementation programs associated with clear benchmarks by sharing roles between the public and the private sectors.