At the Medical Tourism Association (MTA) Annual Conference in Orlando, Healthcare Revolution, an agreement was concluded with Online Travel Training (OTT) to promote the online training platform and Certified Medical Tourism Professional (CMTP) certification program to the travel trade in the UK and signed at WTM 2018. The training program is due to be launched in January 2019.
The Certified Medical Tourism Professional (CMTP) and Certified Medical Tourism Specialist (CMTS) are professional certifications within the Medical Tourism field, provided by the Medical Tourism Association. Each certification is valid for (3) years. The certificates help travel agents to build a successful business in the Medical Tourism industry, mitigate the risks unique to the Medical Tourism industry, select qualified Healthcare Facilities & Providers, become educated in quality, transparency, legal and privacy issues surrounding health and wellness travel. There will be a nominal cost to take the course, with discounts for agency groups and consortia.
Medical Tourism is a multi-billion-dollar industry that is predicted to increase by up to 25 percent per year within the next 10 years, according to a study by Visa-Oxford Economics. The UK has both a significant inbound and outbound medical tourism market. Inbound patients are usually coming to the UK to access high cost, tertiary healthcare services, whereas outbound patients are usually seeking lower cost treatments (cosmetic, dental, eyes, hip, knees, IVF etc.) which are either not available to them on the National Health Service or not easily and quickly (NHS).
In 2016, 144,000 people travelled abroad from the UK - a rapid increase from 48,000, two years earlier. Increasing waiting times, especially on hip, knee, and cataract operations are common causes of UK patients’ medical migration. Central Europe is popular for dentistry and cosmetic surgery while France and Switzerland are being more frequently visited for hip and knee operations. Couples seeking fertility treatment are going to Spain amongst others.
Top destinations for medical tourism today include Thailand, India, Mexico, South Korea, Malaysia and more, which combine strategies for affordability and quality of healthcare with the availability of attractions and cultural sights to offer patients a relaxing ambiance during recovery. In Europe, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Poland are gradually becoming choice destinations for medical tourism, according to the Medical Tourism Index Report.
One of the drivers for medical travel is quality of healthcare. As competition in the market of health travel becomes fiercer, players in the industry have adopted a number of strategies to make their “product” of more value and quality to distinguish them from their competitors through higher levels of accreditation.
Countries and hospitals that offer high-quality healthcare services at affordable and highly competitive prices are taking a higher share of the health tourism market.
“For a travel agent to become a medical travel facilitator it is important to understand the patient’s journey; from identifying the need for medical care to recovery and returning home. It is important that the travel agent is aware of the regulations and responsibilities they are taking on and how best to handle them” commented Alison Cryer. “Medical tourism has vast potential but must be handled in the best possible way for the patient. By providing certification to the travel trade MTA aim to ensure that the travel trade can benefit from this growth sector professionally and by observing best practise and patient can go to one facilitator for all aspects of their journey” she concluded.
“OTT are proud to be chosen to partner with the Medical Tourism Association to create a new, well trained distribution channel for medical tourism. This is an exciting, new business stream for Travel Agencies to embrace in 2019 and we’re looking forward to supporting this specialist sector with training, seminars and announcements to our 101,000 UK members’" said Julia Feuell, Managing Director, OTT.
