the challenge of rendering Health Tourism selection "destination-neutral"

…making the “where” a non-factor

the approach to solving the conundrum

…drawing on the mental clarity provided by the “overview effect”

BTW, the background picture used to illustrate this article was borrowed from the entry in Wikipedia on the subject of the "Overview Effect".

Unlike some industry (supply side – sell-side) players, because of my role, I am fortunate in not having an incentive to promote one destination instead of another.

I say this because in the context of Conventional Health Tourism, competition is primarily between destinations – and only then, between “providers”.

Truth be told, I am guilty of stating that with Health Tourism, the selection process begins by first, choosing the destination.

Destination + Provider = Choice.

When practically all countries / nations are now, at the same time, also Health Tourism Destinations, the issue of destination even comes to the fore when wanting to stage an International Health Tourism Event “somewhere”.

The immediate suspicion is that the event aims to promote the “location” as a destination.

This is unlike staging an event for which the “location” is immaterial (e.g., technology events).

Now that “today” is the Internet Century, I consider it absurd for Health Tourism to still be destination-centric.

But deeply-entrenched perceptions and vested interests stand in way of getting “logic and rationality” to prevail.

BTW, logic and rationality have each been taken as fundamental concepts in philosophy (Wikipedia).

The primary concern of the prospective international health consumer is the attractiveness and quality of the health-related services – and this is all about “provider” – and not “primarily” about the destination.

With the “HEALTHnab” app (part of the Waft Strategy), one starts by first selecting the service, then the provider and only then, the destination.

The “attractiveness and quality” of the destination is important – but it stands to reason that, it should not constitute the “primary concern”.

But we have been conditioned (by vested interest and “other forces”) to consider things the other way round.

Time to set things right.

And this begins by considering the definition of Contemporary Health Tourism: “health-related services – in 8 segments - involving some travel” (nowhere in the definition does the word “destination” appear).

Then (as I explain), in support of my “mission” I, once again, called upon what is known as the Overview Effect.

In preparing to transform Health Tourism (from conventional to contemporary) I "tested" myself to ensure I had the mental clarity which results from considering Health Tourism in its entirety - and seeing the big picture.

This is known as the Overview Effect.

Overview Effect

In contemporary usage, the term Overview Effect means: “mental clarity” (which results from considering “things” - such as Health Tourism - in their entirety - and seeing the big picture).

The “overview effect” is a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts during spaceflight, often while viewing the Earth from outer space.
        

From that perspective, national boundaries (and destinations) become of secondary importance, obsession with "competition" becomes laughable - and the impetus to place the consumer at the epicenter, becomes obvious and imperative.

Rendering competition irrelevant is relatively easy, by encouraging and enabling the adoption and implementation of Blue Ocean Strategy (see: real innovators create Blue Oceans - for which competition is irrelevant -?https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/constantine-constantinides-m-d-ph-d-a22912197_innovation-blueocean-blueoceanstrategy-activity-7028575673405378561-ViPD/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop?).

Then, the objective of getting the health consumer to primarily “start thinking and doing” in terms of “services and providers” instead of destinations, is achieved by presenting Health Tourism as a “real” metaverse.

In the metaverse there are services and providers – and only one destination.

Instead of scores of destinations, it’s about the metaverse of services and providers.

BTW, as part of embracing Web3 technologies, Contemporary Health Tourism has embraced the metaverse in the form of Healthistan (Journey to Healthistan).