Where Florida Begins: Visit Jacksonville Sponsors World Medical Tourism & Global Healthcare Congress

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. - July 2, 2015 - PRLog -- An aggressive marketing campaign targeting both conventions and international patients to visit the First Coast is bearing initial fruit, according to officials at Visit Jacksonville, a sponsor of the World Medical Tourism & Global Healthcare Congress, Sept. 27-30, 2015, in Orlando, Fla., the Medical Tourism Association® Announced today.

“Every patient wants the best treatment they can get,” said Renée-Marie Stephano (http://www.medicaltourismcongress.com/renee-marie-stephano-jd/), President of the Medical Tourism Association®. “In that sense, Jacksonville, which has a great healthcare infrastructure that includes top-notch providers and specialists, is already a destination of choice for medical tourism and patients throughout Florida, across the United States and other countries.”

Visit Jacksonville estimates medical tourism contributes $23 million annually to the local economy. Medical meetings and conventions brought in another $30 million to Northeast Florida in 2013 and 2014. With world-renown facilities including the Mayo Clinic of Florida, the University of Florida Health Proton Therapy Institute, Ackerman Cancer Center and Wolfson Children’s Hospital, Visit Jacksonville believes medical tourism – combined with dollars generated from hotel stays, dining, and entertainment – can translate into an economic boon for the northeast corner of the state.

Florida has devoted $5 million during the next three years to promote the state as a destination for medical tourism. Visit Florida, the state’s tourism board, awarded grants totaling $100,000 to Visit Jacksonville, and medical providers including the Mayo Clinic. In the meantime, Stephano has been collaborating with Sen. Aaron Bean (R-Fernandina Beach) to assess additional areas of strength – from specialized cardiac surgery and orthopedics to routine procedures for dental care and cosmetic surgeries – throughout Florida that can be built upon and marketed to out-of-state patients.

On average, more than 375,000 U.S. residents already spend more than $5.2 billion on medical services in Florida; about 3 percent of both the total patients and healthcare expenditures within the state. By comparison, more than 38,000 international patients spend more than $580 million on medical services in Florida annually; about less than one percent of all visits and charges.

The World Medical Tourism & Global Healthcare Congress attracts some 3,000 key stakeholders – hospital administrators, doctors and clinicians, employers, government policy makers, insurance executives, facilitators, and hospitality and tourism interests – from across the globe to share their experiences and identify and solve issues that bear significantly on the industry. For a preliminary list of speakers, go to: http://www.medicaltourismcongress.com/integrated-conferences/

The Congress agenda features the 6th Ministerial Summit, Global, the 4th Medical Directors Summit, the 3^nd Global Women’s Leadership Summit, regional and industry forums, and educational workshops included among more than 1,000 networking meetings for up to 200 qualified buyers of healthcare. Participants, sponsors and invited speakers can keep abreast of Congress updates or register at www.MedicalTourismCongress.com

About the Medical Tourism Association®
As the first membership-based international nonprofit trade organization and think-tank for the medical tourism and healthcare industries, the Medical Tourism Association® develops and implements creative and sustainable strategies for attracting direct foreign investments. The MTA provides advisory services to investors researching the industry and matches these financiers with medical tourism-related projects. www.MedicalTourismAssociation.com