Before you start reading this blog, I need to warn you that it requires some audience participation!
Basically, I was reading this article about the words we use to describe medical tourism, and it got me thinking that there is a lot more that really needs to be said on the subject. And who better to talk about it than the people who have been abroad for treatment, or are considering it?
Medical tourism, treatment abroad or health travel - what is the best term to use
Now according to the author, we should abandon the term, ‘medical tourism’ as it is confusing and doesn’t describe the industry correctly. His main problem is that medical tourism suggests that someone is combining treatment with a holiday and this can be misleading.
He points out that ‘medical tourism’ is the preferred industry term, but the question is whether that is actually the right term to use. I must say that I do agree to an extent –the word ‘tourism’ is most commonly associated with holiday. Nevertheless, business tourism is quite self explanatory and I think medical tourism could be considered in the same way – the addition of ‘medical’ gives a whole new meaning to the word ‘tourism’.
But the question is, what do YOU think? According to google searches, the most common searches are ‘medical travel’ or ‘health travel’. And I must say, I think these terms work well to describe treatment abroad – and possibly better than ‘medical tourism’. Are these the words that you would use? Or would you still use medical tourism? Or something else entirely?
Please join in the debate….
Tags: health travel, medical tourism; treatment abroad; medical travel, UK medical tourists
