A travel agent specialist course on medical and wellness travel is under development by The Travel Institute and Well-Being Travel. Well-Being Travel, an agent for medical and wellness tourism, is providing guidance and resources for the course, including creating key learning objectives. It arranges medical tourism trips at medical destinations organized by medical partner Companion Global Healthcare.
A travel agent specialist course on medical and wellness travel is under development by The Travel Institute and Well-Being Travel.
Well-Being Travel, an agent for medical and wellness tourism, is providing guidance and resources for the course, including creating key learning objectives. It arranges medical tourism trips at medical destinations organized by medical partner Companion Global Healthcare.
The Travel Institute is a nonprofit organization that educates and certifies travel professionals, is responsible for writing and administering the course, creating an online test and certifying successful candidates.
The online course will be offered in a series of modules, some of them focused on travel for medical procedures, including the legalities and risks. Modules will also cover the wellness/health vacation market, including resort, spa and cruise wellness vacations. Travel to medical spas or for holistic health reasons will also be addressed. The course will include interactive exercises, images, audio, graphics and testing.
The time is right for a course that enables travel sellers to take an advantage of a lucrative niche, says Anne Marie Moebes of Well-Being Travel, “Health and wellness tourism is a multibillion-dollar industry that continues to grow.”
The partnership between Well-Being Travel and The Travel Institute brings together the required elements for furthering US travel agent education on wellness travel. Well-Being Travel provides the necessary resources for travel agents to be successful in this market; The Travel Institute has the expertise to launch an educational programme.
The Travel Institute makes its money from educational courses, while Well-Being Travel partners with travel agents to promote domestic and international medical and health tourism; the travel agent arranges the airline and hotel, while Well-Being Travel arranges the medical and health aspects via Companion Global Healthcare.
While travel agents actively promote spa, health and wellness tourism-many are worried that they do not have the medical knowledge to arrange medical tourism trips and could be held liable if something goes wrong with the operation.
So far, globally, attempts by travel agents to sell medical tourism have not been very successful, with some travel groups setting up medical tourism subsidiaries and soon closing them as costs exceeded income.
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