March 12th, 2013 (InsideCostaRica.com):
From April 24th to the 26th, Costa Rica will host the fourth International Medical Tourism Congress which will be held at the Marriott hotel at the Los Suenos resort in Playa Herradura, Puntarenas.
As announced by the event organizers, the Council for the International Promotion of Costa Rican Medicine (Promed), the event will bring together 250 companies from 15 countries in the medical and tourism sectors that expect to do business through scheduled appointments with potential buyers.
Promed said that the event aims to promote Costa Rica as a destination for retirement and a healthy life, and that 500 people are expected to attend from across the Americas including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador and Argentina.
The congress will also feature talks and workshops where topics like retirement in Costa Rica, transplant tourism, retirement investing, marketing, and other medical tourism topics.
Clinics, hotels, medical tourism operators, and insurance firms are amongst some of the companies expected at the congress.
In 2011, Costa Rica attracted some 48,253 medical tourists that generated nearly $338 million revenue. Specialties most sought by medical tourists were dentistry (42%), orthopedic, bariatric, or gynecology (22%), preventive medicine (16%), and plastic surgery (10%). Most such tourists come from the U.S. and Canada.
The congress also has the support of the Costa Rica Tourism Institute, the Chamber of Commerce and the Central Pacific Costa Rican Coalition for Development Initiatives (Cinde).
source: http://www.insidecostarica.com / Home / March 12th, 2013
