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Medical Tourism – Implications for the Hospitality Industry

Most of your guests choose to visit your property, fly your airline, or cruise on your ships for reasons of either business or pleasure.

Some tourists may travel with you and then stay at a hotel while recovering from an elective or a complex and specialized medical procedure. This stay is part of a growing trend worldwide called medical tourism.

While a typical medical tourist may be visiting while recovering from cosmetic surgery, virtually any type of health care may be involved. North American medical tourists travel abroad to receive care.

Because of the availability of advanced technology and specialized physician training, the fastest growing group of global medical travelers is finding its way to the United States. Airlines are becoming very familiar with this trend.

These guests are staying with you because they need the privacy, quiet, and excellent service that you will provide. Many medical tourists have a nursing assistant staying with them. The assistant will answer the guest room door to receive flowers, food, and other deliveries.

You may see these guests in the halls or elevators as they are escorted, either on foot or in a wheelchair, to their transportation, or to their rooms following a medical procedure. They may appear bruised, bandaged, and battered. They will not feel well. They will not feel sociable.

Your guest may be embarrassed by his or her appearance. This is the only situation in which I will advise that you try to stay away from this guest if at all possible. Avoid direct eye contact. Simply nod acknowledgment as you quickly pass your guest in the hallway.

www.HospitalityManners.com

Excerpts of blog taken from the book:  Hospitality Management – People Skills & Manners on and off the Job.

Copyright © 2015 Lyn Pont, PhD

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