Berlin lifestyle & healthcare

Germany is one of the most favoured destinations by GCC travellers mainly due to its diversity and its high class medical facilities. The capital of Berlin is popular amongst travellers as it is home to some of the most state-of-the-art healthcare facilities apart from its diverse lifestyle.

Shehara Rizly

On November 11 at 11am a special webinar will be hosted by the tourism board. Yamina Sofo, Director, Sales & Marketing – German National Tourist Office, Gulf countries and Ralf Ostendorf, Director Market Management, Market & Media Relations Asia, Australia, Middle East – Berlin Tourismus & Kongress GmbH, share more details of the event

Yamina Sofo

Q Could you share with us an overview of the webinar?
We would like to highlight the importance of the destination of Germany to the Gulf region and will focus with ‘Berlin Lifestyle & Healthcare’ webinar on the city of Berlin that accommodates all the requirements of the GCC travellers, from diverse leisure facilities to excellent health and wellness services.

Q Who will be your target audience?
Travel and tourism professionals i.e. OTAs, travel agencies, tour operators, M!CE representatives, and medical tourism agencies.

Q What benefits does the audience receive?
They can explore the diversity of the city of Berlin and its highlights through an informative and educational webinar with an opportunity for instant and live interaction, and get to know about Berlin’s Wellness and Medical offerings including the Vivantes Hospital Group.

Q In terms of GNTO, what is the role that you will play?
Since its launch in 2005, the German National Tourist Office (GNTO) has been actively promoting destination Germany across the GCC region through various projects and collaborations with German partners.

With ‘Berlin Lifestyle & Healthcare webinar’ , we are promoting the destination Germany and introduce an in-depth overview of the city of Berlin with its diverse offerings.

Ralf Ostendorf

Q Do you have any figures that you can share in terms of the numbers from GCC that visited Berlin over the past few years, as they have been promoting the destination as a medical touristic destination?
Berlin is one of the most visited cities in Germany by GCC nationals as it ticks all the boxes for their travel requirements from great family attractions, excellent shopping centres and superb sightseeing opportunities to high-quality hospitals and professional medical care that matches the expectations in the Gulf region. This includes Arabic speaking staff, familiar with Islamic culture and tradition as well as the availability and easy access to restaurants offering halal food.

Over the years, the ‘Health & Wellness’ sector in Germany has gained an excellent reputation worldwide, offering a healthcare system that is considered to be among the best in the world, well-known for its high-quality standards and excellent value for money.

In the year 2019, Berlin witnessed an increase of its international medical travellers by 14.7 per cent compared to the year 2018, welcoming nearly 9,000 international medical travellers to its medical and wellness facilities. GCC nationals represented 12 per cent of the total medical visitors to Berlin in the year 2019.

Q Could you share a brief about the ‘Berlin Health Excellence Initiative’?
‘visitBerlin’ has been actively engaged in promoting health tourism since 2010. Working together with Berlin Partner for Business and Technology, visitBerlin wishes to further strengthen Berlin’s profile as “Europe’s Health Capital” through its “Health Excellence – Health Capital Berlin” initiative. In this context, visitBerlin‘s role is to communicate and advertise health tourism products and services in selected target markets.

visitBerlin cooperates with a network of partners that include representatives of Berlin’s medical services, accommodation, trade and tourism sectors. The objective is to expand the existing healthcare tourism infrastructure with its wide-ranging competencies and broad spectrum of services and increase its external visibility and profile. Berlin Partner (the Berlin-Brandenburg Health Capital cluster) supports and interlinks actors from the areas of business, healthcare and politics with a view to continuously expand top-class services for the region and global healthcare market. The Health Excellence Initiative is funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises. www.berlin-health-excellence.com

Q What are the areas the Berlin Health Excellence partners specialise in?
A wide range of medical departments are professionally covered – Bariatric Surgery, Cardiac Surgery, Cardiology, Dentistry, Dermatology, Diabetology, ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat Medicine), Fertility Medicine, General, Vascular and Visceral Surgery, Gastroenterology, Gynecology, Laser Medicine, Naturopathy, Nephrology, Neurosurgery, Neurology, Orthopedics, Ophthalmology, Oncology, Pediatrics, Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery, Pneumology, Prevention and Diagnostics, Psychiatry Rehabilitation, Rheumatology, Sleep Medicine, Transplant Medicine and Urology.

Q What can you offer to attract the medical tourists from GCC? (halal food, Arabic speakers etc.)
Everyone interested in coming to Berlin can enjoy professional service from all partners of the Berlin Health Excellence network and can directly contact the medical providers with the relevant personal medical documents. Berlin offers Halal eateries, Muslim-friendly hotels, mosques for prayers and a lot more to make visitors feel welcomed and safe. Hospitals also have Arabic speaking staff.

Q GCC travellers will always have a group that will accompany them, how will you accommodate them?
When it comes to accommodation there are offers from the hospitals, but there is something to suit every taste in Berlin – everything from simple guest houses to luxurious five-star hotels. A medical stay in Berlin involves much more than just the treatment. A complete physical recovery depends on many other factors. The city’s numerous specialised service providers offer a wide range of services and cater for the special needs and expectations of Arabic patients and their families.