Materia Medica Malaysiana

Malaysia Medical Tourism Gets Facel

A young Dutchwoman has beaten Malaysia's savvy businessmen to a lucrative new business sending European clients home from hideaway holidays with bigger breasts or a facelift.

Price and privacy are the big drawing cards, says Marloes Giezenaar, a 26-year-old MBA who has reshaped 65 clients since setting up "Beautiful Holidays" on Penang island off Malaysia's north-west coast some 18 months ago.

For around the same cost as cosmetic surgery in their home countries her clients get the surgery plus the chance to recuperate during a two-week holiday in a four-star hotel far from the prying eyes of acquaintances.

The most popular treatments, in order, are breast augmentation, liposuction, tummy tucks, facelifts and nose jobs, Giezenaar told AFP in a recent interview.

"In Britain a breast augmentation with implants is between 3,000 and 5,000 pounds ($5,400 to $9,000), depending on what kind of clinic you go to.

"With us, including the flight from Britain, two weeks in a four star hotel, plus the surgery, all the transport, all our advice, it comes to about 3,000 to 3,200 pounds," Giezenaar said.

The idea for "Beautiful Holidays" came to the curvaceous six-foot blonde, who has had her lips plumped but no other cosmetic work, when she completed her MBA in Singapore, where her father was NEC computers managing director and vice-president for Asia-Pacific.

"I have a lot of friends in Europe who had cosmetic surgery and I always thought the recovery was very slow — weeks of sitting at home, but they still had to go to the supermarket and do domestic chores while they were healing.

"When I came to Asia I found that many wives of expats had things done here because it was so cheap and the results were practically the same as in Europe. They also recovered a lot faster because they all had maids so could sit around doing nothing.

"So when I got my MBA, it was, am I going to work for one of the big consultancies or one of the big corporates and work 70 hours a week for somebody else's money and somebody else's profit or am I going to try my own thing."

With investment from a venture capitalist in Holland she first set up a "new media" company, Bridgethree Sdn Bhd, designing websites and doing other IT work in Penang's high-tech tradition.

When that was up and running, she began "Beautiful Holidays", and says that while Bridgethree has a bigger turnover, the cosmetic holidays are more profitable.

"I was very cocky when I came from my MBA, thinking I would break even in two years, but it takes three, although Beautiful Holidays will do it sooner than that as there are not a lot of overheads."

Giezenaar works with a Malaysian plastic and cosmetic surgeon who practiced for several years in Britain. She does the marketing, mainly through her website, word of mouth and brochures at European beauty salons and gyms, arranges the consultations, flights and accommodation.

"It has been a big success," she says, adding that she has no competition in Malaysia.

Several Asian countries, including Singapore and Thailand are targeting "medical tourism" as a growth area, and Giezenaar is co-chairman of the Health Tourism Promotion Taskforce of the Penang Tourism Council.

"The people I get don't usually go for humongous Pamela Anderson boobs. They are professionals or housewives with children, so they just want fuller, firmer breasts and they go one or two cup sizes up," she says.