In these recessionary times, almost every industry is seeing significant losses. Not so with medical tourism. Hospitals specializing in medical tourism report seeing a 30 percent increase in business from international patients last year. Discounting other nationalities, The Deloitte Center for Health Solutions estimated the number of Americans that traveled abroad for healthcare in 2007 at 750,000. As money gets tighter, more people are opting to travel long distances to save on their healthcare bills. Current research indicates that more than one million Americans are traveling overseas to receive medical treatment. While traveling abroad for medical care is not a new concept, it is only in the past few years that the medical tourism industry has exploded. International hospitals in foreign countries began focusing their marketing efforts on global clientele and medical tourism companies like MedTrava were created to help fill the gap between the patient’s need for information, support, and assistance and the hospital’s ability to devote its valuable resources to this area. With the current state of the U. S. healthcare system, it’s no wonder that many uninsured Americans are eschewing medical care in their home country in favor of medical tourism. More than 47 million Americans are uninsured and nearly 120 million Americans are underinsured. The statistics for certain states are appalling. Only 76. 1 percent of Texans and 79. 9 percent of New Mexicans were insured as of 2007. Worse still, only 81 percent of Mississippians and 81. 5 percent of Texans could get medical care when they needed it. President Obama recognizes the problems inherent in the U. S. system of healthcare, saying “Fixing what’s wrong with our health care system is no longer a luxury we hope to achieve — it’s a necessity we cannot postpone any longer. “But with no clear idea of how the administration will pay for the estimated $630 billion price tag for its proposed reform, and with Republicans remaining vehemently opposed to nationalized healthcare, it could be a long while until Obama can make good on his promise of “It’s time to deliver. ”In the meantime, more and more Americans will continue to feel the pinch of healthcare bills. A recent Harvard University study reveals that medical bills play a factor in more than 62 percent of all bankruptcies. And it’s not only the uninsured that are affected by hefty medical bills; 78 percent of those citing medical bills as a reason for filing bankruptcy were actually insured.
Part of this reason is the ever-increasing share of the medical bill insured consumers are expected to pay. According to a survey by the National Opinion Research Center and Watson Wyatt Worldwide, the annual out-of-pocket medical expenses for an insured worker increased 34 percent between 2004 and 2007.
The researchers recognized this problem and stated in their report, “in the United States, if you are sick and earn a modest income, then you are probably underinsured — even if you have employer-based health coverage. ”
Health Insurance premiums have risen 73 percent since 2000, according to the National Coalition on Health Care (NCHC). Employers and insurance companies are forced to more closely scrutinize their health plans to contain the high costs. Employers are now covering fewer employees, reducing the number of covered procedures and increasing co-pays and co-premiums. In fact, the NCHC states that employee contributions have increased 145 percent since 2000.
Many insured individuals in this situation find that they can save more money by traveling abroad for their treatment than they can by paying these hefty co-pays. Some have been pleasantly surprised to find that their insurance company will reimburse them for part of their medical travel. While many medical travelers take advantage of cost savings for dental treatments, facelifts and liposuction, a growing number are opting for open heart surgery and orthopedic procedures like hip or knee replacements overseas. Medical tourism can also allow a patient to take advantage of procedures difficult to receive in the U. S. Surgeries such as Birmingham hip resurfacing and cervical disc replacement were only recently approved by the FDA, so overseas surgeons can have years more experience than U. S. surgeons on these techniques. Procedures like stem cell treatment are also available in some foreign countries.
However, the bulk of the treatments medical tourists are seeking include orthopedics, cardiology, and dental. Patients are able to save up to 80 percent in these fields and receive superior treatment over what they would probably have been able to afford in the U. S. Quality of care at hospitals is comparable in quality to those in the United States. The Joint Commission International, an arm of the organization that accredits American hospitals has accredited nearly 200 hospitals overseas. Many doctors and surgeons are English-speaking and have trained at Western medical schools and teaching hospitals. Medical travel companies can help expedite and facilitate a patient’s treatment. Once a patient contacts a medical tourism facilitator like MedTrava, it can connect them to carefully selected, pre-qualified providers and fast-track the sending of the patient’s medical records and set up a conference call with an overseas surgeon in days. Surgery can be scheduled in as quickly as two weeks, and the medical travel facilitator can assist the patient with every aspect of their medical travels, from visa and passport assistance to arranging for a patient care manager, driver, cell phone, and hotel in the destination country. While traveling abroad for surgery is not usually a person’s first choice, the quality of medical treatment available abroad is at an all time high—in some cases, superior to what is available in the United States. And in these days of a recession with no end in sight, being able to save 80 percent on anything without sacrificing any quality is a much-needed reprieve.
The current recessionary environment sweeping the world has been notable for both its severity, and also its wide ranging scope. Travel, and in particular luxury tourism, is sentiment-driven consumption, and is therefore highly susceptible to the current recessionary mindset.
The decision to travel requires the means and the will. In a recessionary environment, both of these factors can be affected. The effects of a recession on the means are obvious: jobs are lost; investment portfolios are compromised and devalued. What is less obvious however is the effect of a recessionary mindset on the will to travel. Tourism is all about feeling good. People take luxury tours to enjoy themselves. Even though a recessionary environment might not affect the personal means of certain market segments, the general negative environment surrounding a recession is often enough to take away the feel-good factor, and therefore the will to proceed with a sentiment driven purchase.
The inbound New Zealand tourism industry is in a unique position in that our distance from almost all of our major markets makes travel to this country expensive. The cost of getting to New Zealand further encourages travelers to stay longer, thereby making their vacation even more comparatively expensive. Recognizing this paradigm, the New Zealand Tourism Industry has through the years focused on the value added segments of the tourism industry, including the luxury sector. This is an understandable position to take but does the inevitable high cost/value positioning of our tourism product make us more susceptible to recessionary down-turns? The answer to this question is complex. Our high cost/value tourism product feeds directly into a boom-bust cycle of demand. The higher cost aspect of our tourism makes us highly susceptible to the downturn of an economic cycle -the bust! Ironically however, while the distance to New Zealand underpins our high cost tourism product, it also makes the demand for the same high value product non-perishable. Put simply, a trip of this magnitude is anticipated so much that the desire to do it remains for many years even if current economic circumstances do not allow it. Any demand that is unfulfilled does not perish, but is simply deferred until circumstances improve, with a resulting deferred boom in the industry.
In summary then, the relatively isolated location of New Zealand makes it highly susceptible to a boom-bust tourism cycle. In a recessionary phase, the high comparative cost of our tourism product exacerbates a drop in demand. However the high comparative value of our luxury tourism product often results in that drop in demand being deferred until the recessionary cycle is over, with a resulting tourism boom.
It is critical for the success of tourism businesses to understand this boom-bust cycle, and use a planning horizon that covers both the boom and the bust parts of the economic cycle.
You can’t open a newspaper or switch on the news at the moment without hearing about the economic downturn that the whole of the western world is suffering from. Hardly any sectors are immune, and many companies are making redundancies in order to stay afloat. The worst part of this is that companies often slow their recruiting, and there are far more people competing for the smaller number of jobs.
It can seem hopeless, but having spent a long period of my life in online travel recruitment, I like to think I’ve learned a few tips to help you find work – even in times of recession:
Be Focused
If you have recently lost your job, you can end up panicking and being tempted to apply with a standard CV to anything and everything. This isn’t a good strategy, and can lead to further despondency (if you’re applying for jobs that you’re not qualified for, or have no experience of, then the likelihood is you’ll never hear back and consider it a slight against yourself. )
Instead of using this shotgun approach, take time to pick the jobs that you want the most and the ones that you are best suited to. Then, take the time to tailor your CV to each application and make sure that you meet all of the requirements that are listed on the ad in your CV and/or covering letter. Don’t make them read between the lines and be explicit with it, or you’ll risk blending in with thousands of other job seekers with similar skills. The truth is that if you send a generic CV to every employer you end up being an average fit to everyone, but a great fit to no one.
Don’t fall back on the idea that the number of applications you make is a ‘score’ of how well you’re doing. 5-10 tailored applications to targeted jobs every week are far more likely to pay dividends than 50-100!
Be Flexible
The worst thing about looking for work in a time of recession is that you become more beggar than chooser. In particular, you may need to drop your salary expectations and be prepared to travel. Jobs may be more prevalent in other areas of the country, so you greatly enhance your employment prospects if you’re prepared to relocate – maybe even consider international work if it’s an option. Because less people will be prepared to go this extra mile (often literally!), you may find that the competition is considerably less fierce giving you the edge that is so vital during a credit crunch.
Be Pro-Active
Successful job hunting always requires you to work extra hard to outdo the opposition, and you really need to be especially proactive in times of recession. I always tell clients that proactive doesn’t mean uploading your CV and occasionally looking out for travel jobs in the paper – you need to make phone calls, network and tailor an application to every single job you apply to. You may also consider signing up to an agency, and you’ll definitely a specialist for your industry, whether you need an expert in legal or online travel recruitment.
Bear in mind though that even then, recruiters aren’t an excuse to slip into habits. Be sure to chase them up, or you may well slip off their radar, and it doesn’t hurt to continue looking under your own steam.
Employers will increasingly turn to the internet to learn more about you, so consider joining professional networks like LinkedIn. A blog too is, in some professions, a great way to show off your talent and knowledge so consider this as a strategy to give you the edge.
Don’t Burn Out
If you panic and allow the newspaper talk to get the better of you, you may well find yourself spending every waking hour searching and applying for jobs. While this will almost certainly yield some results, you may find you just end up feeling exhausted, frustrated and disillusioned. Be a little more selective with your jobs, and don’t let the job hunt completely consume you. Consider devoting the morning (say 9am-1pm) to looking for work, and spend the rest of the day taking your mind off things with something else – go to the gym, or do some gardening. You may well find that taking the pressure off, and allowing you to think about something other than jobs will allow you to come back refreshed, and make those applications that bit more irresistible.
If All Else Fails, Consider Retraining. . .
It may make sense at first to look at areas where you have experience, but if it really isn’t working for you (or you simply feel like a change), this could be the perfect time to retrain. While online travel jobs (my area of expertise) are limited, there are other areas of work which are considered ‘recession proof’ – there will always be the same (or more) demand for teachers, police officers and health care. There are also areas of work which come into their own in recession – accountants are all important as businesses have to keep a close eye on their books, and consultants are often in demand as companies look to cut costs.
Getting a job during a recession is hard work, but if you are serious about it and make it a full time job in itself, you’ll certainly be able to get one. Keep these tips in mind, make sure your CV is up to date and the best it can be and there’s no reason you can’t move on to bigger and better things – even while the world’s economies falter.
While it is not easy to make money especially in the time of current recession, stepping out and looking around will pop up many opportunities which one can use for an extra income.
Internet touches our lives almost everywhere and most of us are familiar with it there are many such opportunities available online to get to started. Writing blogs and using them to generate income is very popular but not everyone can be sure of returns from that direction.
One interesting option is available at a site www. traveldaddy. com. This is a social networking site for travelers and can help you find travel buddies across the world. All those who are fond of traveling and would like to share experiences with other like minded people can write reviews, travel tips and blogs here and earn points. These points can alter be redeemed for specific gifts, this is not all. If you write reviews which are liked by members, they come back for you and you continue collecting points.
After having collected good number of points you can contact the travel agencies who are already registered on the site promoting their own tours to make you their travel expert of a particular region/ country/continent. They will benefit because being their expert your points will add on to their own and their ad/ listing will be higher in the site. As already mentioned the listing depends on the number of points the travel company has, more points means higher listing and vise versa.
Your points give you the power to bargain with these companies to make you their travel agent which will benefit them and in return you write about their tours, destinations etc. Since you are popular with the members they will come back to read your views and thus giving more publicity to the respective travel company.
Now what does the expert get in return? The expert can get these companies to pay him in return for the services. It is a great way to make money online while all you do is write about destinations being promoted by the tour company you are associated with.
Moreover you can be associated with more than one company maybe become and expert with them for a different region/ country. It will depend on how well you sell your self. This will obviously mean more money.
This is a very innovative and yet very simple way to make money online for all those interested in travel.
The current recession reaches into virtually every market sector, and it’s far from over. Economic experts predict the U. S. economy will continue to struggle, with weak consumer demand in nearly all industries. However, companies that respond by retrenching may be sacrificing valuable opportunities. A more proactive approach is to find innovative ways to minimize expenses while maintaining and even extending business relationships. Business travel is one of the dominant financial factors where costs can be saved. But how can this be achieved without weakening sales and direct customer relations?
A particularly effective way to achieve travel budget reductions is to employ web conferencing. Salespeople can make interactive presentations that showcase the product while allowing customers to see the presenter and ask questions.
Web conferencing cannot only be employed for sales presentations but also corporate trainings. Many training topics are candidates for virtual delivery, including supervisory and management subjects, product introductions, and especially software training. A trainer can give students hands-on experience while demonstrating features and commands from his own desktop. Travel budget reductions can be quite significant, since companies can train hundreds of employees without incurring any travel expenses.
With web conferencing, people in various locations can meet over the computer. While not every in-person meeting can be replaced with a virtual one, the number of ways companies can use web meetings is extensive enough to offer a quick and sizable ROI. An internal team can meet to edit a document, and each member can see everyone’s changes. Employees in remote locations can collaborate in real time much more effectively than by conference call. IT departments can even use web conferencing to provide a virtual help desk, remotely addressing computer problems at any company location.
For all its benefits, there remains some resistance to web conferencing. Some senior employees see business travel as a valuable benefit of their jobs. Some mid-level managers are eager to prove their dedication by undertaking extensive travel. Some executives feel strongly about the personal connection afforded by in-person contacts. Others are simply slow to adopt new technologies, or are intimidated by concerns about cost, licensing and choosing the right provider. While these may have been valid drawbacks in the past, today’s economic climate simply compels decision makers to seek cost savings, particularly when they come with the added benefits of increased productivity and effectiveness.
Leaders who want to change company practice with regard to travel can follow this five-step plan:
1) Explain the economic imperative for reducing travel budgets. Address directly the issue of status symbols and the need to redefine them.
2) Develop new rewards, based on achieving business objectives while containing travel costs.
3) Develop a plan for introducing the new system, including unit-specific goals for reducing the travel budget.
4) Stress the need to maintain good relationships with customers, suppliers, and partners.
5) Smooth the introduction of web-conferencing by providing a pilot period with adequate training and support.
An advantage that may win over some skeptics is the environmental benefit of reduced travel. In addition to travel cost reduction, web conferencing results in greenhouse gas reduction, since both airline and automobile fuels are culprits. The research institute Gartner reports that business travel can account for as much as 50% of a company’s carbon footprint. For corporations that have adopted a “green” marketing strategy, web conferencing can be an important component.
There remains the challenge of identifying the best web conferencing solution for your specific situation. Cost-and-feature comparisons can be a particular obstacle for small and midsize enterprises without staff resources to devote to an extensive investigation. There are vendor-independent sites, like www. webconferencing-test. com, that help make the decision making process easy. Websites like this are an excellent information sources, providing access to well-researched, rated, compared and edited information, helping companies take those first steps with web meetings.
Today’s economy presents the most difficult business environment in decades. Fortunately, technology provides a cost-saving solution that can actually improved operational efficiencies while reducing travel costs. Web conferencing makes it possible to visually demonstrate products in a way conference calling cannot match. In web meetings, employees can actively collaborate, making teams more effective. Companies use web conferencing to take advantage of cutting edge marketing opportunities like social networking, and can allow employees to telecommute, further reducing greenhouse gas emissions and office overhead as well. The many advantages of web conferencing argue for a serious look, and economic conditions argue for doing it now.
As we move in to the traditional summer holiday period, the current economic climate is heavily influencing the travel decision of people in Watford and St. Albans. Adroit-e Research conducted a field research last July 23rd and 24th asking people about their holidays and if the recession has affected their travel plans this year. 40% of people interviewed from both towns claimed that they were either downsizing their holiday or not going at all. In a few weeks, employers and businesses will be having to cope with quite a lot of disgruntled workers who rather than feeling refreshed may feel disappointed that their holidays were less than inspirational. There’s a slightly different response between the interviews conducted in St. Albans and and Watford. In Watford, more people were going without a holiday while in St. Albans, majority of the people affected were simply downsizing. All is not gloom and doom as well over a quarter of the respondents are taking more than 2 holidays this year. This is an interesting finding and could be explained in terms of the apparent widening gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. Another interesting finding reveals that more people are considering staying in the Britain as the result of the economic downturn. Over 60% of respondents in Watford and St. Albans have considered staying in the UK rather than travelling further afield. This could be good news for traditional British holiday but many people we interviewed said that they need to get their marketing right. Interestingly, a considerably higher percentage of St Albans respondents compared with Watford said they were considering staying in the UK. Further research into this would be fascinating and important to holiday destination marketers. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————Local holiday makers in St. Albans and Watford are rarely influenced by green issues when making their holiday travel plans. This is a significant finding from research carried out in St Albans and Watford with local shoppers over the weekend. Research results reveal that only 17% of respondents said their travel plans were influenced by ecological issues. The responses in Watford and St Albans were virtually identical. There’s little doubt that the recession is part of the scenario as 22% of the sample are either downsizing their holiday and 18% are not having a holiday because of the current economic climate. That’s important context. However, more research needs to be undertaken about the effectiveness of the communication relating to green issues. Jonathan Brill
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