Medical travel 2022: are you in or out?

The tourism sector is increasingly embracing technology and sustainability, and future success will integrate tourism with technology, culture, the internet, finance, and sustainability.  In 2022, if organisations in the medical travel sector don’t adopt this approach, then it’s time get out, says Ian Youngman.

The medical travel sector often thinks that it is something special, and not at all like mainstream holiday tourism.  Which is why much of the market often has to relearn what mainstream tourism has done before on marketing, social media, technology, and customer care.

Now, more than ever, is the time for medical tourism to integrate itself at a local level with what mainstream tourism is doing.

Not only will it avoid always being one step behind, but it will also show the wider tourism sector that health and medical tourism can be a key part of the offering, which will increase its visibility and profitability.

The challenge is that many in the medical tourism sector will have to improve their offering, including how customers are treated, marketing and planning.

Learning from the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF)

At the 2021 WTCF conference held last month, two key research results were released: the World Tourism Cities Development Report 2020, and the Agenda for the Future Development of World Tourism Cities (2021-2030).

WTCF has been playing a leading role in enhancing cooperation among global cities, and supporting new development of city tourism after the pandemic. The key conference themes included tourism recovery and development. In 2021, thanks to gradually strengthened pandemic prevention and control around the world, it believes domestic tourism markets in most countries are beginning to recover, and it is optimistic for global tourism recovery.

Developing business again

WTCF believes integrated innovation and technological empowerment is key to promoting high-quality and innovative tourism. It recommends that businesses and destinations should:

• Focus on the market and react quickly to market changes.
• Build new business formats and new models integrating both culture and tourism.
• Invest more in tourism technologies for technology-driven development.
• Constantly improve content, adopt asset-light strategies and expand online development.
• Service should never be neglected and business models should be widely applied to guide business practices so that consumers have more enjoyable experiences.
• All entities should adhere to green and environmentally friendly concepts and promote robust tourism development by following low-carbon concepts.
• They should seek to integrate industrial and financial capital to improve businesses’ core competitiveness from various perspectives, including production, marketing, operation and management.

Replace the word ‘culture’ with ‘medical’ and this shows what medical tourism should do. Going green and environmentally friendly will also add new challenges.

Innovation

WTCF states that innovation offers the way out when the tourism sector hits problems. Spain, for example, introduced innovative practices of promoting sustainable tourism development. It found innovative forms can offer tourists better experiences and increased use of facilities.

Change will bring new opportunities. People are using different channels to get information.  Too few in medical tourism use social media.

Tourism is a sector characterised by openness and inclusiveness, and too much of medical tourism lacks this. Can a customer get a guarantee for the full cost of a trip with all extras, in advance, and not be hit by unexpected extras that annoy and anger them?

Reform

Reform must be carried out in content, services, products and operation. Once the pandemic dies away, local governments will implement policies for tourism revitalisation. Tourism enterprises should be fully prepared for expanded consumption.

Openness and inclusiveness are waiting to be developed. People now prefer short-distance tourism, decentralised tourism, customised tourism and tourism in low-density areas. With expedited integration of tourism with relevant industries including culture, sports, education, science and technology, agriculture and health, the WTCF sees global tourism entering a new round of transformation and innovation.

Medical tourism must be part of this transformation or it risks withering away.

Investment

In terms of seeking new tourism investment opportunities, integrated development covering multiple fields represented by ‘Tourism+Technology’, ‘Tourism+Culture’, ‘Tourism+Internet’, and ‘Tourism+Finance’, will offer opportunities.

Many healthcare and insurance businesses have or will launch new investments and partnerships as governments seek to encourage investment. Medical tourism must be equally brave and fast acting. The medical travel sector no longer has years to develop a new project or service. Take too long and a competitor will overtake you.

While focusing on the temporary transformation from international tourism to domestic tourism, Kenya has been providing funds and subsidies for tourism development and promotion projects. This is boosted by the application of digital platforms, the internet and social media, and promotions based on community medias. All this has been developed in months.

Global

WTCF sees global tourism as an ecosystem and its safety requires us to repackage tourism products and services.

Innovation and new technologies should play a more prominent role in building smart tourism. This can include preferential policies, innovation in online visas, and enhanced cooperation with international partners, to support the recovery and development of tourism.

Tourism cities are a core part of global tourism, and they are of great significance for global pandemic prevention and control as well as tourism recovery. Big data, the internet and smart technologies will set the trend for future development of world tourism cities since they are the key to dealing with changes in consumption habits and tendencies as well as improving the quality of tourism cities.

Medical tourism needs to work with cities on developing tourism. This used to be about just increasing numbers, but now it can actually mean reducing inbound flow, like Amsterdam, which is encouraging people away from the city to nearby towns and cities.

While it might look convenient to build a new clinic in the city centre, but when the environment is considered, could it work better in the country, preferably on a site once used for another purpose?

Changing patterns

The pandemic has driven changes to people’s tourism concepts, consumption patterns and travel methods, although it is too early to tell what new consumption phenomenon will increase over the longer term.

We are already seeing falls in urban leisure, micro-vacation in rural areas, and overseas consumption. Cities in Europe, America and China have been adjusting tourism to meet the new consumption needs. Tourism cities should build new tourism modes featuring development of surrounding tourism markets, local tourism and internal tourism.

Several countries have suddenly found that the domestic medical tourism market they have ignored for years is suddenly bigger, more lucrative and less fickle than overseas medical tourism. Some even find that encouraging people who automatically go overseas, to stay at home for treatment, works well for hospitals and customers.

Smart cities

The intensification of city smart management and the upgrading of the quality of tourism cities will prioritise customers, promote smart development, improve service quality, focus on ensuring information security, enhance cooperation and help international tourism development.

If medical tourism is not involved at the beginning of the process, it will be much harder to integrate it into a smart city system later on.

Making changes happen

Medical tourism needs to focus on markets, prioritising development, supporting innovation, improving content and services, adhering to green, environmentally friendly concepts, and more.

Innovation can offer medical tourists better experiences with an increasing use rate of facilities, all linked to sustainable development.

The recovery and development of medical tourism services requires cooperation within and among countries around the world. The road ahead is full of obstacles, but global medical travel can regain its vitality and development.

So, do you want to be in or out?  There is no shame in making a market exit. But staying in requires the time, resources and money to be an integral part of this wider tourism transformation.