Come for a new hip, stay for SeaWorld? San Diego bets on medical tourism
A San Diego campaign aims to attract patients from around the world. But experts say it'll take more than online ads to build a medical tourism hub.
SAN DIEGO — It’s got sun, sand, top-flight biomedical research, and highly rated hospitals. But can San Diego really become a hub for medical tourism?
City leaders sure hope so. They recently launched a marketing initiative — funded mostly by a local philanthropist — that aims to attract patients from across the country and around the world. The pitch: Get your hip replaced or your cancer treated by top specialists — and then take your family to Legoland or SeaWorld.
The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio are also bidding to become hot — though they can’t promise any sparkling beaches. But experts say it takes a lot more than a slick marketing campaign to create a true medical tourism hub.
