UK travel agents offered training in medical tourism

Online Travel Training (OTT) and the Medical Tourism Association (MTA) have agreed a partnership with a goal to educate and engage travel agents in the UK in medical tourism.

The US-based MTA has customised its Certified Medical Tourism Professional (CMTP) certification programme for the UK travel trade. The CMTP course is targeted at the 90,000 UK travel trade professionals through OTT.

CMTP is a training programme and certification that provides participants with a comprehensive overview of the medical tourism industry, latest trends, key stakeholders, best practices and business models. CMTP is available online or as a live workshop and is managed by Global Healthcare Accreditation (GHA),

CMTP certifications are renewable each year with certified professionals having access to the online e-learning programme for continuing education courses.

Karen Timmons of GHA explains. “Delivering an outstanding medical travel experience on a consistent basis is not something that can be improvised; it requires in-depth knowledge of customers’ needs and expectations. There are considerations regarding culture and language, care management, travel coordination, risk mitigation and legal and privacy issues. Travel agents bring their own unique expertise and experience that can be leveraged within the medical travel industry to support traveling patients, health and wellness travellers and the providers who serve them.”

UK based OTT is the world’s first global online training and marketing platform for the travel industry, and now has 165,000 customers globally in 192 countries, 100,000 are in the UK.