We went back to Fitur Salud this year hoping to continue advancing in the promotion of Spain as a health and wellness destination. It’s been three years now that we have been attending this event and without a doubt, this has been the best year.
Leaving it to international professionals, such as B2B Encounters, led by Mert Akkok, the conference cycle organizations, has given those of us who are dedicated to this sector the opportunity to see first-hand what is being sought in other countries, which is what differentiates us from the competition and, perhaps most importantly, what we do wrong.
We were able to meet international facilitators, who gave us their vision of Spain in the field of health. Many of their complaints are already known, such as the lack of staff with languages in hospitals, the lack of international certifications such as JCI, the difficulty of obtaining visas for issuing countries such as the Arab Emirates, Algeria, Nigeria … but sometimes It is necessary that they come from outside to tell us what we fail and thus to put solutions.
But without a doubt what is clear in these days, is the importance of medical facilitators in this process, because they are the ones who provide solutions to all these problems, those who accompany patients on these trips where feeling accompanied It is equally important that the treatment, those that help to generate confidence to the international facilitators to know which is the best hospital for each patient.
From the Association of Medical and Health Facilitators of Spain (AEFAMYS), and each one through our companies, we work without stopping, so that our importance in the whole process is recognized. So we help the Hospitals, in the international promotion and at the same time, we help the patients during their health trip.
From here I wanted to thank Spaincares for its change of direction, I believe that D. Carlos Abella, has managed to reorient the Cluster and that this edition of Fitur Salud has been infinitely more productive for the entire sector, hospitals, clusters, facilitators … that we have all been able to share ideas, problems and, above all, solutions to help promote the Spain brand in Salud y Wellnes.
We have much to learn from those countries that are leaders in health tourism, but it is clear that we must follow a unified strategy between central and regional governments, hospitals (large and medium) and facilitators to make Spain an attractive destination. Without this union, it will be much more difficult, without knowing what we are the best at and how we want to make it known is practically impossible. We have been telling the clinics for years that you can not be the best in everything, but that success comes from specialization, that it is impossible to go to all markets, unless you have unlimited resources, and that you have to study the public well target and guide the strategy there, not only marketing but hospital as a whole.
