Last November, during the “The Globals Awards” in London, a coveted recognition for the healthcare & wellness advertising industry, a multimillion dollar project from Tijuana was nominated and won for the “The Most Outstanding Medical Tourism Service” category. The most noteworthy aspect of the news is that the project isn't even finished.

Yet, the award drives home the point that Tijuana continues to be one of the most important destinations in the world when talking about medical tourism. And the project, called “NewCity Medical Plaza”, is just the latest in a string of investments that are betting on making Tijuana a global power for medical treatment.

NewCity medical Plaza and Baja tourism officials showed off the award to the media this past December

While still in construction and slated to be finished by 2019, NewCity Medical Plaza, competed against 100 other nominees from around the world and got the distinction. Such is the atenton it has gotten in both the medical and even real estate industry.

It will consist of a main 18 floor tower for medical offices, clinics and spaces for plastic and bariatric surgeries, stem cell treatment, dentistry, fertility clinics, and more.

NewCity Medical Plaza will also have a hotel for patients (and regular guest), spaces for conferences and events, a food court and shopping center.

It's aiming to receive up to 800,000 patients just in its first year.

Render of the final project when ready in 2019. Credit: NewCity

The project will solidify and improve the medical services that are increasingly being demanded by the visitors to our city looking for all types of medical treatments.

“Tijuana is the area with the most medical tourism transit in the world, and there is a lot of tourism that comes from San Diego to Mexico in search of medical services, because those services cost up to four times as much over there than here", said Isaac Abadi, president of Grupo Abadi, NewCity's developer.

Baja California currently estimates that its medical tourism industry is worth more than 600 million dollars in 2016, and preliminary data shows a 30% increase for 2017, meaning tourist in the state spent more than 800 million here.

The Baja California tourism authority also reports that 31% of overall tourism in the state are actually visitors looking for medical treatment, of any kind.

And there's no doubt that Tijuana is dominating the medical tourism industry in Mexico and carving its place in the world's. The city has also successfully lobbied every medical tourism conference or convention it has attended in the world, meaning that it convinces the events tourism authorities attend to hold their next installment in the city.

NewCity begins operations in 2019

NewCity Medical Plaza is just over 30% completion, although you can now see it take shape and towering over the border, next to its sister buildings, the NewCity apartment towers, which continues to expand as well, with another tower just having started construction last month.

The project is also unique in that medical professionals and doctors are now buying property in the medical complex, instead of having to just rent space there. Some are even opting for living next door in the NewCity apartment towers.

"There isn't any other project with all the services under one roof like this, and the location is unparalleled for American patients", said Abadi.

By:jose.sanchez@sandiegored.com