Citing data from the Medical Tourism Association and Deloitte, an international accounting and consulting firm, as many as 1.6 million Americans could be traveling in 2012 for medical tourism and spending billions of dollars in the process, ASTA reported. To help its members capitalize on the growing trend of medical tourism, ASTA is offering a Webinar called "Should You Be in the Medical Travel Business?" on Feb. 17, from 2 p.m. to 3p.m. EST.
"Medical travel, where patients leave home and often the country for care, is a growing industry and anticipated to be an industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars by 2012," said ASTA president and chair Chris Russo. "Unlike other specialty travel products, however, there are significant issues with providing medical travel services to patients. Learning about these issues — such as through our upcoming Webinar — and understanding the issues and how to deal with them, will allow travel agents to explore a new and highly profitable niche."
The Webinar will discuss the issues concerning this growing segment of the travel business, whether it’s the right move for an agent or agency to make and how to make the niche a profitable one. Arlen D Meyers, MD, MBA, a professor of Otolaryngology, Dentistry and Engineering at the University of Colorado-Denver and Health Sciences Center, will present. Meyers is the co-founder and Chief Medical Officer for MedVoy Inc., a global healthcare medical tourism company, and president and Chief Medical Officer of CareConnectrix, a global healthcare social network.
Visit www.asta.org.