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Abdul Hamid Mohamed Naila Aaijaz Health Tourism Malaysia : A Need for an Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy Introduction Health or medical tourism is certainly not for the faint hearted. Foreign patients in Malaysia has increased almost ten-fold from 39,114 in 1998 to 374,063 in 2008 and revenue generated had risen from a mere RM14.1 million to RM299 million in the same period – an impressive growth rate of 35.7%. It may seem that the aggressive marketing and promotion of medical or health tourism if unchecked and unregulated can lead to abuse and the basic obligations and responsibilities of the government in providing healthcare to not just the poor but also the struggling middleincome earners and uninsured will be neglected. Health Tourism or Medical Tourism, is today a term freely and interchangeably used by many private medical practitioners, travel and tour operators, politicians, government officials and mass media to promote the lucrative medical business. Malaysia now boasts of a projected revenue of USD4.4 billion (RM15.6 billion) by 2012. About 35 private hospitals have been identified by the Ministry of Health, Malaysia to promote Malaysia as a medical tourism destination. The concept of health or medical tourism is not a new. The Greeks did that thousands of years ago travelling from all over the Mediterranean to the Saronic gulf called Epidauria for medical treatment. Dating back to the eighteenth century England had spa towns and sanitariums with supposedly health-giving mineral waters, treating diseases from gout to liver disorders and bronchitis (www.wilkpedia.org.org/wiki/medical tourism). Today, these services appear in a more fashionable, caring and money making ventures. Despite its high cost of health care, private hospitals are cashing in on the advancement medical technologies, high demand and the long wait times for certain procedures. Health tourism or medical travel (also called global healthcare) describes the rapidly-growing...