“This is an incredibly exciting time for medical travel. The consumer demand is strong—and it’s growing rapidly year over year.
Now is the time for the medical and travel industries to come together to service what may well be a $100-billion global market by 2012,” said Anne Marie Moebes, Executive Vice President of Well-Being Travel.
Moebes spoke at the April European Medical Travel Conference 2011 in Barcelona. The event drew over 400 participants and 40 exhibitors from around the world to exchange ideas and develop new initiatives for the fast-growing medical travel niche.
Key healthcare providers, doctors and politicians engaged in lively discussions during the event about how to enter the medical tourism market, attract patients and provide medical solutions that conform to the highest international standards.
Moebes added, “just as you are the experts in managing the medical side for patient travelers, you allow us to handle the travel side of their experience. The bottom line is that anyone can book an airline ticket and a hotel stay. But it takes years of expertise and contacts to make the entire travel experience run smoothly, to know for instance how to book refundable airline tickets, or to know to arrange with the hotel concierge in advance to pick up the patient traveler at the airport.”
Well-Being Travel was launched last year by American Marketing Group, Inc. as the go-to resource for medical tourism, bringing together the medical and travel industries in a breakthrough partnership. The global organization provides the relationships, technology, marketing, networking and educational opportunities to help agents get in on the ground floor of this rapidly growing niche. Its alliance with Companion Global Healthcare provides an instant relationship for agents who are part of the American Marketing Group agency groups (Travelsavers, NEST, TWIN, or The Affluent Traveler Collection) to become credible sources to handle the medical travel needs of their clients.
Well-Being Travel will soon be offering medical travel packages including air and hotel. And, the company has already begun planning a medical expo that will bring together the medical industry and destinations around the globe in an expanded partnership.
Travelsavers, www.travelsavers.com