For the first time ever, the medical and travel industries will convene in a 3-day event to strategise about the quickly emerging and highly lucrative global medical travel market at the Well-Being Travel Conference 2012. The ground-breaking event will take place on June 21-23, 2012 at The Phoenician, an acclaimed Starwood luxury resort in Scottsdale, Arizona.
More than 1,000 participants from around the world are expected to attend, including key representatives from medical facilities, hospitals, dental facilities, spa/wellness facilities, insurance companies, tourist boards, travel agencies, and travel providers.
The event is being sponsored by Well-Being Travel, the go-to resource for medical travel that is taking this burgeoning niche market to the next level of development. Never done before, this conference will place medical representatives face-to-face with travel sellers who are already established as a travel distribution channel and who already have clients that are traveling around the world on spa and wellness trips.
“There are a variety of medical travel events being offered in the marketplace today, but none of them has yet provided a solution for a strong distribution system that effectively reaches the patient traveler,” said Anne Marie Moebes, Executive Vice President of Well-Being Travel. “That system must include: travel sellers who are already booking all types of travel for their dedicated clients; destinations who want to promote their countries to medical travelers; hospitals and doctors who provide the procedures and pre/post medical care; and travel industry suppliers who need to understand what products and services this special market segment needs. The Well-Being Travel Conference 2012 brings together all the key players for the greatest benefit of patient travelers.”
The event will explore medical tourism opportunities and set a direction for the future of this developing niche. Speakers from the world’s best medical and travel organisations will educate and motivate. The highly specialised corporate side of medical travel will be discussed in depth; insurance companies are increasingly working with corporations to offer employee benefits to incentivise them to travel for their medical procedures, and knowledgeable travel agents are ahead of the curve in proactively bringing these opportunities to their corporate clientele.
At the Well-Being Travel Conference 2012, resources will be provided so that participants from every segment of each industry involved in medical travel will depart from the event with a customized action plan to implement medical travel offerings.
“The various elements of the leisure travel industry are quickly finding themselves in the medical travel business,” said David Boucher, MPH, FACHE, President and Chief Operating Officer of Companion Global Healthcare, Inc. “As more Americans and Canadians travel overseas for necessary surgical care, an increasing number of airlines and cruise lines are making accommodations for them. Certainly a growing number of international hospitals are courting these traveling patients. Large self-insured employers are also beginning to understand the real value proposition of international medical travel to their employees…and to their bottom lines! The savvy travel agency today recognises the nuances of international medical tourism…..then connects with professional medical travel facilitators who work in concert with them to ensure safe travels. Well-Being Travel has done their homework over the past three years to build a ‘best in class’ solution.”
Echoing the idea that the time has come for medical travel, Laura Carabello, Principal of Strategic Marketing Communications, which specialises in providing marketing solutions to the medical community, said: “The travel community will play an increasingly important role in helping Americans to access more affordable, high-quality healthcare beyond our borders. Individuals and employers will need to turn to competent travel professionals who understand the challenges – and opportunities – that are now available. Kudos to those in the travel industry who are meeting the needs of consumers who now recognise that medical travel is a viable option for surgery and treatment not available or simply too expensive in the United States. On behalf of this collective community of medical travelers, I thank the travel agents and others who are making this a priority service.”
The meeting venue selection and planning of events for the Well-Being Travel Conference 2012 is being professionally handled by Acclaim Meetings, ameetings marketing organisation for meeting planners and travel agencies.
To find out more about how about the Well-Being Travel Conference 2012, contact Debbie Press at 888-854-0039 or dpress@well-beingtravel.com.
