Costa Rica Hotel Staff Gets Training in Med Travel
Travel agents who send clients to Costa Rica for medical procedures may be pleased to know that in at least one hotel, the staff has been trained to handle the special needs of medical travelers.
More than 250 staff members at the Ramada Plaza Herradura, in San Jose, Costa Rica, recently received training on caring for medical travelers, provided by Medical Tourism Training Inc. (medicaltourismtraining.com), a Massachusetts-based company.
The specially created two-session training program, “Caring for the Medical Tourist: Training for Hotel and Resort Employees,” focused on the unique demands of international health travelers who are at the crossroads of hospitality and hospitals, said Elizabeth Ziemba, president of Medical Tourism Training.
This is the company’s first training program. Medical Tourism Training’s affiliated company, the healthcare market research firm Stackpole Associates, compiles quarterly surveys of the hotel’s current and past guests, of all kinds, to evaluate their awareness of medical tourism and to plan for improved hotel services for medical tourists.
Medical Tourism Training’s educational programs are offered worldwide, Ziemba told Travel Market Report.
“It just so happened that the first program was delivered in Costa Rica, but we are looking forward to training in many countries. The program is appropriate for staff anywhere in the world and will be tailored to the differences in each country or region,” Ziemba pointed out.
Ziemba added that the company is developing other training programs designed to have a broader appeal to healthcare providers, facilitators and others in the medical tourism field.
Medical Tourism Training offers a series of customer service training programs that address the various issues that are crucial to achieving success in the medical tourism sector.
Ziemba said that her company’s research has found that healthcare providers lose customers because they are not meeting the service expectations of international health travelers.
“Prompt and polite communications are essential to success in this sector that is relationship driven”, said Ziemba. “Every phone call or e-mail that goes unanswered or employees that react poorly to foreign customers lose business. Our programs train staff, instilling effective, proven skills that can transform relationships with medical tourists.”
Ziemba continued, “Medical Tourism Training’s team of experts from the health, travel, hospitality, training and business sectors understand what is needed to succeed in this nascent industry. The company is dedicated to tackling the unique needs of medical tourism organizations by providing specialized programs based on best practices and real-life situations.”
Herradura Ramada president Gustavo Araya said that the training has “sensitized our staff to the physical appearances and many of the specific requirements of our medical tourism guests. Our trained staff gives our hotel the competitive edge over other hotels and resorts vying for business in this increasingly dynamic sector.”
