Medical Tourism, Spa & Health Conference took place on 18 September

The 9th International Conference for Wellness and Medical Travel “MEDICAL TOURISM, SPA & HEALTH” took place on the second day of MATIW-2013 on 18 September within the Luxury Leisure exhibition. The Conference highlighted the most topical issues of outbound and inbound health and medical tourism. The Conference reports were dedicated to traveling safety and insurance issues, medical assistance, evacuation in emergency situations, and legal support. These issues were highlighted on the last Conference in 2012. They aroused much attention among the delegates, and the Organizers decided to include them in this year’s Conference agenda. Nadezhda Manshina, the Conference moderator and the expert of the Russian Union of Tourism Industry, noted that these topics were of great interest again, attracting even more delegates than in the last year and proving the fact that the Conference programme is very topical and high-demanded.

“The interest on this tourism sector is growing, and it is very important to know what the professionals think about that. Moreover, the face-to face communication is very efficient: in spite of huge information field in the Internet, there are still a lot of outstanding issues for the discussion”.

Nadezhda Manshina, the Medical Tourism, Spa & Health Conference moderator

For the first time the Conference delegates had an opportunity to hear the expert opinion on insurance issues of the specialists from the Institute of Post-Graduate Training of the Federal Medical-Biological Agency of Russia (FMBA) who delivered the report on “Medical and aeromedical evacuation: emergency actions and patients’ transportation”

“Alean”, one of the leading tour operators, took part in the Conference for the first time. Oksana Bulakh, the Company’s Commercial Director, spoke about the sales technologies. She shared secrets of the 20-year successful experience in services promotion, and showed the statistics of medical and recreation tours demand.

“For the first time our speaker is a representative of a major tour operator, who reveals their secrets. Usually the issues of sales technologies cover only destinations. How to orient oneself in this big world, how to build-up sales efficiently, how to communicate with clients, how to conclude a contract and make all parties happy — all these questions were covered by Oksana Bulakh”

Nadezhda Manshina, the Medical Tourism, Spa & Health Conference moderator

Among the Conference speakers there were Yuriy Ilaidi, Head of the Interdepartmental Working Group of the Federal Medical-Biological Agency of Russia (FMBA) and the Federal Tourism Agency, Anna Gladun, General Director of “Visit” Legal Advice Office, Konstantinos Kuskukis, Vice Rector of Democritus University, and others. The delegates highlighted the issue of medical treatment in Austria, Slovenia, Greece, UAE, and South Korea.

Both speakers and delegates noted the high level of the Conference Programme and organization.

The next 10^th anniversary edition of the Medical Tourism, Spa & Health Conference will take place within OTDYKH International Travel & Tourism Forum (former MATIW).