{
  "id": 10848250,
  "title": "Penang medical tourism draws 285,400 visitors, generates RM601.8m",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/30/penang-medical-tourism-draws-285-400-visitors-generates-rm601-8m",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-30T03:33:22.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "New Straits Times",
    "slug": "new-straits-times",
    "url": "https://www.nst.com.my/news/regional/2026/09/1544424/penang-medical-tourism-draws-285400-visitors-generates-rm6018m"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "Penang, Southeast Asia's leading medical tourism hub, attracted 285,400 visitors and generated RM601.8 million in medical tourism revenue during the first half of the year, according to the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC). State Tourism and Creative Economy Committee chairman Wong Hon Wai highlighted the continued growth of Penang's medical tourism sector, noting that the figures only covered hospitals and excluded other healthcare providers. Wong emphasized Penang's strengths, including internationally accredited healthcare institutions, modern facilities, competitive costs, quality services, and multilingual capabilities, while also identifying potential diversification of source markets to mitigate competition from neighboring countries like Vietnam and Thailand.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}