Fly2doc sponsored the 2nd Annual World Health Tourism Congress in Cyprus. It is our strategy to be associated with all the major events in Medical Tourism where we will be present with sustainable good value proposals. Knowledge and innovation are the key success factors in this industry.
The 3rd Annual World Health Tourism Congress, Marbella Spain
by Hadi Malaeb
Medical tourism is traveling to other countries to obtain medical, dental, and surgical care.
It is becoming a rising trend as more and more people have the tendency to leave their country and search for more affordable health options, with tourist attraction, or when they lack adequate medical treatment in their countries and can afford to travel abroad for medical treatment.
It is estimated that this industry is now worth anywhere from 35 to 40 billion US per year and is growing at a rate of 25%.
A combination of many factors has lead to the recent increase in popularity of medical tourism: high costs of healthcare in industrialized nations, ease and affordability of international travel, improving technology and standards of care in many countries of the world. Health Tourism is becoming the FASTEST growing segment in the Tourism Industry.
There are two kinds of Medical tourists: generally residents of the industrialized nations of the world, the countries they travel to are typically the less developed ones with lower cost of medical care.
But also the trust in well established treatment over years of experience brings health business to industrialized nations.
Medical tourism holds the promise of reducing health care costs for individuals, companies, and governments, as the latter will likely offer discounts and rebates to their employees and constituents to prompt them to chose the medical tourism option and, in turn, reduce the insurer's and self-insurer's growing costs of providing quality health care.
More and more people from all over the world are traveling to other countries not only as tourists who come for sightseeing and shopping but also to get medical, dental, and surgical services from hospitals and other health destinations.
Medical tourism is a rapidly growing industry with countries like Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Peru, Singapore, Hungary, India, Jordan, Lithuania, Malaysia, South Africa, Thailand and the Philippines actively promoting it.
Aura Events, an event management company based in the Media City in Dubai, UAE, realized the potential of the Medical Tourism industry back in 2004 and we set up to host the first ever international event that specifically targets “corporate buyers” and solution providers of medical travel.
The first World Health Tourism Congress was launched in the city of Wiesbaden, Germany in May 2006. There were 45 solution providers and more than 80 corporate buyers attending the first annual WHTC from more than 25 different countries.
The success of the first event led us to the belief that the World Health Tourism Congress should be anchored as the premier annual event for the medical tourism industry.
The second annual event was held at the Le Meridien Spa and Resort in Limassol, Cyprus in March 2007. The event was held under the support, patronage and sponsorship of the Cyprus Tourism Organization.
The number of solution providers went from 45 to 90 and the number of corporate buyers surpassed 150. Fly2doc was one of the preferred sponsors and played a key role in the success of the event.
Based on the success of our first two editions of the World Health Tourism Congress that took place in Wiesbaden Germany in May 2006 and then in Limassol Cyprus in March 2007, Aura Event is proud to announce that the third annual WHTC will take place in Marbella, Spain in April 2008 and will be hosted under the sponsorship and patronage of the Cost Del Sol Tourist Board The Third edition of WHTC is an exclusive congress targeted at top level Senior Executives of fortune 500 corporate buyers and Government Institutions from all over the world.
It is the ONLY event in the world that targets corporate buyers and solution providers of Medical Tourism.
The congress will attract 150 to 200 of the best qualified corporate buyers to the event, in addition to over 100 Solution Providers (Hospitals, Clinics, Resorts and Spas) over a three-day, two-night period.
The congress will also attract world renowned professionals in the Medical and Health Travel Industry as well as all major industry’s Medias and publications.
The event will be dedicated to one on one meeting between Global Corporate Buyers and Solution providers.
The meetings are pre-arranged and pre-scheduled one month before the event takes place.
In addition to one-on-one meetings, we will have a cutting edge conference agenda running parallel to the meetings.
In Germany, we had over 12 speakers and in Cyprus, we had over 20 speakers on different topics The Congress will be hosted in the state of the art 5* luxury hotel The Don Carlos in Marbella.
For more information about the event, please visit our website www.auraevents.ae or the website of the event itself www.healthtourismcongress.com