Perfect Enhancement to tap global cosmetic surgery mart

New Straits Times

December 11, 2008

LOCAL medical tourism agency Perfect Enhancement Sdn Bhd (PESB) seeks to position Malaysia as one of the more affordable countries for world-class cosmetic surgery.

PESB managing director Lenny Irana Zahari said a 2006 Globalysis study has projected the global health and wellness tourism industry to grow from US$40 billion to US$60 billion (RM144.8 billion to RM217.2 billion) in 2012.

“The Asian market alone consists of 1.5 million medical tourists going to countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, spending a daily average of US$362 (RM1310.44) compared with US$144 (RM521.28) by regular inbound visitors,” she said in a statement.

PESB recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Imperial Medical Centre, which is owned by several doctors in the cosmetic field.

Lenny said the partnership is vital in the current global economic uncertainty with predictions by a Singapore-based market analyst - DBS Vickers Securities - that earnings from medical tourism will fall 9.2 per cent this year and 20.9 per cent in 2009 due to the likelihood of patients delaying unnecessary or non-emergency treatments such as plastic surgery.

She added that the MOU is hoped to at least assist PESB maintain its two to three per cent market penetration target for 2009.

PESB aims to capture a 10 per cent share of the cosmetic surgery market in five years.