A young Dutchwoman has beaten Malaysia's savvy business people 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 said.
"In Britain, a breast augmentation is between R39 000 to R65 000. 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 R39 000 to R41 000," Giezenaar said.
The idea for Beautiful Holidays came to the two-metre-tall blonde - who has had her lips plumped, but no other cosmetic work - when she completed her MBA in Singapore.
With investment from a venture capitalist in Holland she first set up a new media company. When that was up and running, she began Beautiful Holidays.
Giezenaar works with a Malaysian cosmetic surgeon who practised 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.
"Malaysia's got big potential for medical tourism. The hospitals are very good and a lot of Malaysian doctors are trained in the UK and Australia."
Giezenaar says she avoids Thailand's more extreme surgery, such as sex-change operations "and people who come along and say: 'Make me look like Demi Moore.' "
"The people I get don't usually go for humungous 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. - Sapa-AFP