Do Conferences and Trade Shows Bring Patients or Business into Medical Travel Destinations?

Given the global epidemic of COVID-19 most medical tourism events and conferences scheduled for 2020 are cancelled. Conference organizers as well as attendees may revisit their plans for next year or for longer period. We are happy to initiate as well as to facilitate these discussions and we prepared an overview of the medical tourism conferences’ and events’ market with one question in mind: 

Do conferences and trade shows bring patients or business into medical travel destinations?

Photo: Ilan Geva 2020

Interested in organizing a medical tourism event? Are you looking for the most useful event in medical tourism to attend? We have similar questions and happy to share our experiences and acquired wisdom. 

Medical Tourism Conferences. Are they all the same?

The conferences involving any Medical Tourism topics, have splintered from being exclusively focused on introducing the new phenomena to other topics. It is not unusual to see conferences that pop up in nearby regions dwelling on many extensions of medical tourism and as of now they include:

·        Academic conferences

·        All-in-one conferences

·        (Hosted) Buyers conferences

·        Certification oriented conferences

·        Chamber of commerce conferences

·        City focused conferences

·        Cluster and association focused conferences

·        Educational conferences

·        Government conferences

·        Healthcare conferences

·        Insight, Innovation and Medical equipment conferences

·        Investment Conferences

·        Medical Insurance & Medical evaluation conferences

·        Medical/healthcare trade shows with a medical tourism track

·        Medical spa conferences

·        National or regional focused conferences

·        Patient experience conferences

·        Scientific conferences

·        Tourism trade shows with a medical tourism track (ITB Berlin)

·        Treatment-specific conferences

Similar list can be created with wellness-focused topics.

During the last 10 years, the conference and event industry has exploded. Special conference and event organizers have moved full time to concentrate on the medical tourism category as the only one in their portfolio. There are 50-60 annual conferences that include either a full time or partial medical tourism track. That is an average of at least one medical tourism conference per week somewhere…

Ilan is fortunate to be invited to speak in an average of 7 conferences annually, and so far, I have presented in estimated 50 conferences within the last 10 years. Laszlo has been talking about the relationship between health, wellbeing, wellness and travel in 40+ countries and at over 80 conferences.

One fact is quite clear, patients do not show up for medical tourism conferences and workshops. No patients are included in invitations to such conferences, and they do not seek participation anyway. Some events with public interest are open to the public as trade shows. For example, a Fertility Show generates wide interest among individuals and couples who are considering any procedure to expand the family and find a solution to infertility. Infertility, being a very common situation generates interest and attracts the actual potential patients into such show. Not like other medical situations, fertility could be planned in advance.

But conferences do not offer solutions to patients.

It has been known for years now that medical tourism conferences are NOT an ideal marketing tool for B2C activity. That is why the B2B formats are popular in many conferences and trade shows.

Medical Tourism Conferences. A frequent speaker perspective.

Based on the extensive evidence we can state that medical tourism, or medical travel business category or if nothing else the interest in medical (and health or wellness) tourism is growing at a respectable rate, but not significant enough to justify so many conferences. The current situation prevents professionals either in medical tourism, healthcare or in hospitality from attending a conference that is known to be THE ONE, especially in the regional and global arenas.

There are certain observations that summarize and describe the current situation:

1.      Many of the conferences are a complete duplicate and repetitive activity (and speakers’ faculty)

2.      Some conferences are initiated with “national pride” or “city pride” or “organization pride” as the main motivator

3.      Mega conferences are offering hundreds of speakers within a 72-hour span, a complete waste. They dilute the ability to learn much.

4.      Many speakers are real experts in their field but are not great speakers…they are not vetted as such.

5.      Politicians LOVE to attend conferences, but only to open them in a short congratulatory speech and a photo op… (They leave immediately after)

6.      Patients (consumers) are never present, or even know (or care) about these conferences or even expos

7.      Very few doctors attend, a decent number of administrative and management personnel are present

8.      The average attendee is young and serves at a lower to middle level job in the healthcare category.

9.      A lot of peripheral service providers attend and aim to sell their services (That’s a good thing)

10.      There is little overlap in terms of attendees from the healthcare and hospitality sectors although the market expectation would clearly expect more of such cooperation and collaboration

11.      The conferences did not offer any remuneration and/or do not cover speakers’ costs, since “it is a privilege to be invited to speak” (a common myth)

One of the essential and fundamental components of any professional event is the speakers’ faculty. As any mature industry, Medical Tourism has developed a number of recognized experts, movers and shakers and collegial alliances. At the same time, many of the conferences are generated by competing entities, and these are followed by “Loyalists”. These Loyalists will basically boycott the competing conferences, will not attend them, and will not refer business to their participants. Also, there are organizers which would ban certain speakers who are not from their own stable or who would not necessarily echo the intended message.

In a recent interview with a medical tourism conference attendee, who was also an invited speaker, the person has volunteered the following observations. It is understood that these remarks summarize the key challenges very well. The overall remark was that the conference organizers wasted his time and caused him expenses that will not be compensated by future business potential.

One might say that this could be the opinion of one disappointed speaker. Still, the reasons behind such strong opinion bears the attention of any conference organizer and attendee. We suggest using the statement below and count to how many you would tick:

o    Almost all the people around spoke only the native language and didn’t bother to pay attention to invited guests, that includes dignitaries, politicians, and local business owners.

o    The hosts were focused on selling/promoting a certain initiative, product or development, e.g. senior living properties, but didn’t have any finished product to demonstrate the potential success of such projects

o    The majority of the time was dedicated to sitting in lecture halls, listening to government officials praising the regime and the amazing plans they have put forward for the next 20 years. There were no attempts to organize FAM trips to existing healthcare establishments.

o    Many conference speakers were local scientists or dignitaries who didn’t have anything in common with the central theme of the conference

o    There was no time dedicated for doing business. The entire conference was about rushing the guests from one bus to another, from one hotel to another. No B2B activity at all

o    Most government officials in this conference were focusing on taking pictures and exchanging business cards in elaborate ceremonies, but with no intention to follow up.

o    In three 5-star hotels we stayed the staff didn’t speak English!

o    All printed materials in the conference, both official conference materials as well as marketing materials were in the native language, but none in any other language.

o    The market in this country is lagging behind and not ready for international medical visitors

o    The conference was less so thought provoking or educative but more like infomotion event at best where speakers promoted their services/products and offered speaking slots for only those who also booked a stand at the fair

If you ticked more than one statement above, you might have a similar experience.

Note that in addition to the fact that many conferences take place, a lot of the organizers are asking for sponsors to buy a booth, a stand, a table, or any other branded presence in the conference. Obviously, this a considerable source of income for them, and helps to cover the costs of the venue, the lunches, coffee breaks and sometimes the partial “honorarium” for the speakers. The promises for those sponsors include high visibility and exposure, an opportunity to capture potential clients, and it might include a speaking slot.

The Trade Show booth in medical tourism conferences, smart marketing?

Conference organizers appeal to sponsors by promising benefits such as:

·        Stand out from the crowd

·        Increase your brand awareness

·        Promote your company/country

·        Meet your target audience.

Many of them claim that by becoming a sponsor or partner, they will get a unique opportunity for pre-arranged business meetings, speak alongside industry experts, address and promote the company in front of decision makers, C-level & Director-level executives. The most common benefit of such events is that competitors can follow each other’s current offers rather closely.

At the end of the conference, the sponsors are leaving their booth a few hours earlier, and also leave behind all the printed materials. Those will be tossed into the garbage and add to the incredible amount of waste in the industry.

The exaggerated number, and the perceived success of medical tourism conferences, draws many to try and create new ones. Among them are some dishonest and questionable characters. Obviously, it doesn’t add much to the overall reputation of the trade.

In Croatia, one conference organizer promised a big event, collected money from potential sponsors, and vanished. Prior to that, the same organizer, the executive organizing committee director of ITW-Abu Dhabi commented: “ITW-Abu Dhabi was established with a clear objective of providing opportunities to explore and maximize on the latest trends and offerings within the fastest growing travel segments namely halal, medical, shopping and family tourism.

The extended event never took place and we have no idea what the outcome of the missing money was.

In a recent exposition Belarus has offered a glimpse of the recreation opportunities available in Belarus while focusing on medical tourism. The exposition featured the country's top sanatoria and health resorts, hotels and inns, the Mir Castle complex, and a medical services web portal.

The Belarus booth looked like this. What are the immediate benefits, value proposition or advantages of Belarus featured in this image? Not many, but they were there (Photo: Belarus Tourism Board for the Belarus stand).

As an example, for the absolute commoditization of the “Medical Tourism Conference” concept, let’s look at a European country with 4 million people, and a very small industry of medical services for foreign visitors. During the last 18 months alone, Croatia produced and hosted the following conferences:

1.       Medical Tourism Conference (MTCE) 

2.      Crikvenica International Health Tourism conference, (annual event)

3.       ADRIATIC HEALTH, SPORT & TOURISM INVESTMENT FORUM (annual event)

4.      European Patient Experience & Innovation Conference (EPIC)

5.      IMTJ Medical Travel Summit

6.      HTI Conference in Zagreb and Rovinj

7.      Health Spot Croatia Conference (government event)

The list doesn’t include some other tourism related conferences that contain Medical Tourism as a by-product, or smaller educational masterclasses and workshops conducted with international speakers at the Bagatin Academy, for example.

A recent invitation to participate was sent to many practitioners in the medical tourism business. It says: “Attention has been given to a newly created event called the (XXX) Expo Global Medical Tourism expo 2020. The first opportunity to meet the US public who is eagerly seeking medical treatment and procedure abroad. This unique opportunity will open the door to both doctor and patient to meet face to face and explore the diversity of medical and services offering overseas all under one roof. The US public increasingly seeking an alternative to local high price medical and cosmetic solutions and we believe this Expo will offer a solution through this direct meeting. “

The invitation was signed by a western sounding name, and following a background check, his real name was discovered as coming from a different nationality, plus an arrest warrant for bank robbery. The materials accompanying this letter were extremely shoddy and unprofessional, and they create an impression that the entire industry is unprofessional and amateurish.

Obviously, we are not suggesting here that all people involved in such initiative have a murky background. Not at all.

But it is important to notice that the medical tourism business category is attracting many who believe that money is simply rolling out of the sleeves of the individuals involved. 

When this kind of activity is added to the already busy scene of 60+ conferences taking place around the world every year, the efficiency and value extracted from medical tourism conferences is really low. It is hard to believe any potential patients and customers will flock to events that are marketed unprofessionally by people with shady character.

Are conferences useful? for whom?

Many of the conferences include now a B2B section and patrons are being charged hefty fees to sit at a table and discuss their “merchandise” for an average of 15-20 minutes. They face “buyers” who are coming to hear a sales pitches and leave with business cards, memory sticks and brochures. Pre-arranged meetings with hosted buyers may lead to some business but many of those meetings never take place since exhibitors may follow, they own agendas.

The results are hard to calculate, and so is the return on investment. But from personal experience the “networking” during both the conference coffee breaks as well as the B2B meetings brings almost no results.

Certain cultures encourage the exchange of business cards as a ceremonial activity, with no intention to do business at all. In China, all the accumulation of business cards is absolutely useless, unless the visitor has an investment proposal in China. Not a single Chinese official ever returned a follow up email after a conference, not even a polite acknowledgement.

This behaviour is not limited to China or Asian cultures. The same applies to third tier destinations where the local establishments have no real experience in developing connections, networking and vision. I can mention a few such destinations, Cali in Colombia, Hermosillo and Tampico in Mexico, Seongnam in Korea, Guilin and Wouzhou in China, Lublin and Busko Zdrój in Poland and many more.

We created the landscape of medical tourism conferences. It is quite understandable that both organizers and attendees would like to see beforehand they make a decision which event(s) are doing better? The crucial question is how to measure impacts (B2B, B2C, B2G), e.g.

·        improving the destination’s image

·        improving the organizer’s profile

·        B2B business development

·        patient/treatment volume growth

·        education/capacity building

You can identify what kind of event you are at or planning to attend by selecting the relevant characteristics under the six domains. 

We are happy to talk to you about the return on investment in the medical tourism event business and work with you identifying the most fitting alternative.

The “obligatory” group photograph, something many are doing today for the sake of social media, and for serving the political agenda of the hosts. It has no real value for the actual business at hand.

Photo: Ilan Geva 2015

As we write this article, the Corona Virus is hurting many nations and their economies around the world. Obviously, this will have a significant influence on the MICE (Meetings/Incentive travel/Conferences/Events) category. The medical tourism section within this industry will be affected as well, without doubt.

Photo: Ilan Geva 2014

About the authors

Ilan Geva is the President of Ilan Geva & Friends in Chicago. He is a global expert and authority on branding, an adjunct professor of Branding at The University of Chicago, the co-author of “Global Brand Management”, a well-travelled consultant and speaker.

His concentration on the Medical Tourism sector brought him to 50 countries, and allowed him to speak at many conferences, events and workshops on the topic. He was also fortunate to visit large number of hospitals and clinics around the world.

Laszlo Puczko is the CEO & Co-founder of Health Tourism Worldwide. He has been working in the field of travel and health for 20+ years. László is an experience engineer, strategist and trainer, and wellbeing intelligence expert. He has gained experiences in the private as well as in public sector environments both in medical and wellness tourism. László is one of the very few people in the world who has been active in every aspect and domain of health tourism.