Editor’s Note: Readers may recognize László Puczkó’s name as the author of numerous papers and books on medical travel (Wellness Tourism and Medical Tourism: Where do Spas Fit?, The Future of Spa Tourism, High-End Medical Travel), co-author of Health and Wellness Tourism, in-demand speaker for many global medicine conferences and events, and respected researcher. To that list of accomplishments you can now add founder of The Tourism Observatory for Health, Wellness and Spa. The aptly named observatory is intended to serve as a platform for professionals to gain an unbiased understanding of how the industry is evolving and operating around the world.What follows is part two of an interview Medical Travel Today recently conducted with Puczkó. Part One can be viewed here.László PuczkóMTT:Do you perceive more traditional approaches being a direction for the industry in the future?LP: It will certainly have a role, bigger than some might think. But others will ignore it. If you look at how the industry has or hasn’t evolved in the past five years, you see a lot of copying and clichéd approaches to delivering care. In many instances it’s been a “they’re doing this so we should, too” type of approach. However, there are some true leaders out there not just competing on price and parity, but also on the whole spectrum of quality and what that means. Those folks have their own visions and they’ll do well. Looking ahead, I do think a key issue will be inter-country travel…specifically, the concept of doctors and specialist traveling from their home country to provide care to patients in other countries. MTT:Really? This is something you see happening already in a meaningful way?LP: Yes, it is happening. A doctor might travel to a country for two weeks or a couple of days, provide consultation and care. When you think about it, this is so much more convenient for patients. Instead of ten patients flying across the world to see a particular doctor, you fly the doctor to the country. Now maybe the patient has to go a few hours to reach the doctor wherever he is practicing, but that’s much better than flying across the world and then home post-surgery. Right now I know of Hungarian dentists flying to the UK to practice. This works very well in the Europe where it’s easy to set up the necessary cooperation between a clinic or host hospital and the physician. MTT:Is this a physician or facility driven practice?LP: What I’ve been observing is that doctors are the ones developing this idea. They recognize it’s better that they, the healthy ones, travel to their patients rather than the other way around. MTT:What are your thoughts on the continuing development of and push for healthcare cities?LP: Well, I can see there’s a good angle for them from a marketing and operations perspective, but ultimately I don’t think they will make a huge difference in the industry. On some level they’re a bit like theme parks. They’re big, glitzy and fun to go to but you don’t need one on every corner. Location will play a big role for those that ultimately succeed. It’s got to be somewhere people are interested in visiting. But frankly, even if it’s in the best place in the world, how many times are you going to visit? How often do you want major dental surgery or a hip replaced? I think the answer is never or once at the most. About Dr. László Puczkó Dr. László Puczkó (Ph.D., MSc, MA, CMC) is a managing director and head of tourism at Xellum management consulting company. He graduated in Business Administration at the Budapest University of Economic Sciences in 1993. He holds a master’s degree in Art & Design Management from the Hungarian Academy of Arts and Crafts, a Ph.D. from Budapest University of Economics and Public Administration, and is a Certified Management Consultant. He is president of the Association of Tourism Consultants (Hungary), professor at the Budapest College of Communication, Business and Arts, and guest professor at Parnu Kolledz (University of Tartu, Estonia), HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences (Helsinki-Porvoo, Finland), and International Business School (Budapest, Hungary). He was a Member of the Travel and Tourism Research Association Europe Chapter Board and was the originating co-founder of Wellness Tourism Worldwide. He is now the Chair of The Tourism Observatory for Health, Wellness and Spa. His main areas of expertise include tourism research, strategy preparation, planning and management in the following areas: health, wellness, medical and spa tourism, heritage and cultural tourism, national/regional/local planning, product and project development, experience mapping and enhancement, sustainability and quality of life. He has been involved in over 100 advisory projects and in recent years László has been advising several development projects aiming at thermal bath, spa, wellness and medical tourism developments, at the regional, local and site level. His work included conceptualization, financial and market feasibility, marketing planning and experience planning. László is an international speaker who has given lectures, seminars and training in more than 15 countries worldwide. During his career, in the area of tourism research, László organized and performed a series of primary research projects focusing on perception, marketing, attraction management and impacts of tourism both in Central European Countries and globally. Former positions: researcher, lecturer at the Tourism Research Centre of Budapest University of Economics and Public Administration (1993-2001), and manager at KPMG Advisory Travel, Leisure and Tourism Group (2001-2004). He is a co-author of books on health and wellness tourism, the impacts of tourism, visitor management and tourism management in historic cities.
