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Registration for the travel industry’s first agent-oriented conference on health, wellness and medical travel is now open. Organizers are encouraging travel agents to take advantage of early bird specials providing sizable savings on inclusive conference rates. (See sidebar.)
Co-sponsored by Travel Market Report and Well-Being Travel, the Well-Being Travel Conference will be held June19 to 21, 2012, at The Phoenician resort in Scottsdale, Ariz. The cutting edge, educational conference is open to all travel sellers.
The Well-Being Travel Conference will give travel agents a unique opportunity to learn how to profit from the fast-growing health, wellness and medical travel market, said conference organizer Anne Marie Moebes. Moebes is executive vice president of Well-Being Travel, an industry resource that brings together the medical and travel industries.
Practical tools for agents
Well-Being Travel has partnered with Travel Market Report to create a dynamic program that addresses the particular needs of retail travel agents, Moebes said, noting the publication’s advocacy role for travel agents.
She stressed that the Well-Being Travel Conference 2012 will give agent attendees the tools and resources to develop an action plan for implementing specialized travel offerings in the health and wellness niche.
Comprehensive seminars, panels and training sessions for travel agent attendees will cover:
• the fundamentals of medical and wellness travel;
• the latest developments in health and wellness travel, including key growth areas;
• how to market their agency’s medical travel services and expertise to corporate clients and to consumers;
• how to handle customers’ medical travel needs.
Top-flight speakers
Presenters will include thought leaders in wellness and medical travel; marketing experts; and destinations and travel suppliers that cater to medical travelers, among others. A panel of medical travelers will share their insights and experiences as consumers of medical travel.
Among the speakers will be David Boucher, president of Companion Global Healthcare and Laura Carabello, publisher of Medical Travel Today.
“For the first time, travel sellers and travel providers will meet face-to-face with the experts in medical and wellness travel,” said Moebes.
Networking sessions have been designed to facilitate exchanges between potential partners in the wellness and medical travel space.
Bridging the gap
The conference program is designed to bridge the gap between information currently available and the specific needs of travel agents, she noted. One of its goals is to develop an effective distribution system for medical and wellness travel, Moebes said.
“A variety of medical travel events are offered in the marketplace today, but none has yet provided a solution for a strong distribution system that effectively reaches consumers,” said Moebes.
“That distribution system must include travel agents,” she added.
In announcing that Travel Market Report is a co-sponsor of the conference, Moebes noted that Travel Market Report is the only travel trade publication providing comprehensive agent-focused coverage of the health, wellness and medical travel sector. (Travel Market Report and Well-Being Travel are both part of the American Marketing Group Inc.)
To learn more about the Well-Being Travel Conference 2012, go to www.well-beingtravelconference.com. Conference registration includes all educational sessions and all meals.
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