Tourism stakeholders and hospitals in Cebu are pushing for more road shows and improvement of facilities to promote the province’s medical tourism to international tourists.
Dr. Potenciano Larrazabal, Jr. announced that the family-owned Center for Sight recently purchased a P30 million Allegretto Wave Eye-Q machine, dubbed the world’s fastest eye laser, for their growing clientele.
“We will continuously upgrade facilities and equipments in our hospital to better serve our patients in this part of the world,” the elder Larrazabal said in last Saturday’s formal launching of the Allegretto Wave Eye-Q machine in their Center for Sight.
Dr. Potenciano Larrazabal III, said their machine only takes two seconds to restore vision and is safe to use.
“This machine also reduces the night vision problems for most people who had treatments with other machines. This is the only one recognized by USFDA (US Food and Drug Administration),” Larrazabal said.
“We will continuously upgrade facilities and equipments in our hospital to better serve our patients in this part of the world,” the elder Larrazabal said in last Saturday’s formal launching of the Allegretto Wave Eye-Q machine in their Center for Sight.
Larrazabal said they did a road show for 20 to 25 international travel agents last year, who expressed satisfaction with Cebu’s medical facilities.
“I’m confident that with the machine, we can expect more tourists availing of our cheaper medical treatments,” Larrazabal said.
Larrazabal said most medical tourists demand for cosmetic surgeries, dentistry and treatments for corrective vision which their Center for Sight is part of their services.
He also said they have an exchange student program with foreign institutions in South Korea and Japan. “We have around 150 Japanese under this program now here in Cebu to learn health care. This is just the beginning of all things that will follow,” he said.
Mila Espina, Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry chairperson for tourism, said Center for Sight’s new facilities will help place Cebu in the global map for medical tourism since the center is one of only two centers with Allegretto machines in the country today.
“Many foreigners come to Cebu already and are seeing Cebu’s potential for medical tourism and it’s time that we also promote this. Center for Sight is already known even in Asia and with this new machine they can only expect more people to come,” Espina said.
Espina said they need more government support to promote medical tourism in Cebu through public and private partnership.
Examples of these tourism programs include the Hop-On-Hop-Off City Tour, Windows of Cebu, and Pockets of Beauty, Espina said.
Cebu Daily News