The Bali administration is looking to further develop health tourism with regulations and networks to support the industry.

"[Efforts to promote] health tourism are already underway, but most [of the efforts] are scattered around, without any proper network," Bali Health Agency head Ketut Suarjaya said Tuesday.

Ketut pointed out that Bali had around 3,200 traditional wellness centers, such as herbal medicine practices and spas. However, only 10 percent of the centers were considered to be in compliance with the administration's standards.

Ketut said the administration expected to further enforce its standards to regulate the industry through a bylaw that was expected to be finalized this year. 

Aside from upgrading wellness businesses on the island, Ketut said the administration also planned to turn the Bali Mandara hospital into a center for cancer treatment.

Currently, Bali has the Sanglah hospital, which specializes in treating heart-related diseases and the Sanjiwani hospital, which is specialized in handling nervous system illnesses.

With its move to develop health tourism, Bali is looking to take advantage of global wellness tourism, an industry that has grown at an annual rate of nearly 7 percent from 2015 to 2017 – more than twice as fast as tourism overall, according to the Global Wellness Institute. The institute forecast that the business would grow from US$639 billion in 2017 to $919 billion by 2022.

Bali welcomed nearly 4.6 million tourists between January and October last year, according to Statistics Indonesia (BPS). (dmr)

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