MANILA -- Foreign travel publisher Juergen Steinmetz believes the Philippines could be the next big medical tourism destination after his "mysterious" skin disease was cured in the country.

In TeleRadyo's Sakto on Tuesday, Steinmetz said he arrived in the country to attend the World Travel and Tourism Council global summit. His trip in Manila became a life-changing experience for him after the excellent medical care he received saved his life from a rare skin disease.

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He said the team from Makati Medical Center was able to diagnose that he contracted the rare skin disease and treated it correctly.

"Quite a scary situation but I have to say I felt the Filipino medical facility was absolutely beyond any standard I've seen anywhere in the world, including my home state in Hawaii. So I questioned why isn't there medical tourism in the Philippines, or at least if there is,. it's not that much known. If you compare some of the numbers of medical tourism and what it does to the economy, in the industry, in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea and India, I think the Philippines should be on top of it," Steinmetz said.

Based on what he experienced, Steinmetz thinks that the Philippines has a big potential to become a player in medical tourism.

"If you look at the advantage that the Philippines has, it's not only state-of-the-art facilities... but it's also the human touch that the Philippines has. There's no language barrier, everyone speaks perfect English. If you look at the reputation the Philippine has of overseas Filipinos working in the medical field including the many American-Filipinos in my home state in Hawaii, the medical part is really run in majority by Filipinos," he said.

"So I think the country especially now after coming out of COVID and everyone in the travel and tourism industry is hungry to relaunch tourism, this could be a fantastic niche for the Philippines to develop," Steinmetz said.