- Brand Trinidad &Tobago -

The Mecca Of Medical & Wellness Tourism

Introduction

The concept of branding Trinidad & Tobago (T&T) the Mecca of Medical & Wellness Tourism is the final installment in the creation of the Wellness Lifestyle Management Programme that is being instituted within the KREW.

The point being made is that when the world looks upon T&T, (and indeed our Caribbean and Latin American Region), for inspiration in the practice of a Wellness Lifestyle, as the exemplar for healthy living, this will provide an irresistible responsibility upon all our citizens to take a more serious look at themselves and how they live their lives.

Because of this, our citizens will become more diligent about how they live their lives. They will become much more enthusiastic about a better way to live. The result is better health and a better life.

Each individual will learn a better way to live, become leaders in their own lives, improve their communities, and become better able to enjoy more Success, Wealth, Health & Happiness. They will Prosper!

Prosperity! This is the ultimate achievement of creating Brand T&T; the Mecca of Medical & Wellness Tourism in the World.

Mediserv International, the manager of the VIP and the KREW, has developed a comprehensive Wellness Lifestyle Management Programme. This Programme is named the National Wellness Wellness Lifestyle Management Programme (NWLM). The NWLM is a Wellness Coaching Programme to assist members of the KREW to overcome the deadly effects of the Start & Stop Syndrome (3S). It uses human psychology and the social sciences and organizes Members of the KREW into small groups to generate peer support so that members will achieve their measure of Success, Health, Wealth and Happiness, in their lifetime.

The NWLM is financed under two major funds, the Wellness Fund and the Medical Fund. Members and interested parties contribute to these funds which are used to sustain the efforts of the VIP, for the benefit of members of the KREW, those they care about, and their communities.

The programme started initially merely to help our members to prevent sickness, by attacking the prevalence of Non-communicable Chronic Disease. (CNCD). However it has been expanded to help the national community, and was eventually designed to bring similar benefits to the international community, first by leveraging our international T&T diaspora and then apply technology to propagate virally to impact upon other populations internationally; and ultimately to brand T&T internationally as the Mecca of Medical & Wellness Tourism in the world.

A fortunate by-product of this effort is that T&T shall solve its problem of what will be the basis of our economy after the oil and gas runs out! The solution is a vibrant Medical & Wellness Tourism Economy!

Summary of Technical Requirements

There are three major requirements to be executed in order to make T&T become the Mecca of Medical & Wellness Tourism:

1)      Human Resource: First the T&T public must be sold on the idea. This can be accomplished by the KREW in conjunction with local influencers. However in the general sense it requires worldwide support and participation of ordinary people, organizations, and sympathetic countries. In this context it should be appreciated that organizations and countries are merely organized assemblies of people.

2)      Geographic Coverage: This relates to the natural resources and other physical infrastructures that are needed to support the Medical & Wellness Tourism Economy. Latin America & the Caribbean should be marketed to the world as a Wellness Region. Within this region T&T should be seen as the focal point (The Mecca) surrounded by two major spheres; the Caribbean on the one hand, and Central & South America on the other.

3)      Intellectual Capital: This is what brings everything together. This relates to the institutional infrastructures needed to support the Medical & Wellness Ecosystem.

Intellectual Capital should be seen as the ultimate high value product. Since it is a human attribute, it is available to all economies regardless of natural resources. There are very innovative ways to generate, manage, package and market Intellectual Capital. To maximize the potential gains all aspects of Intellectual Capital should be comprehensively explored and fully understood. The traditional approach is inadequate.

To start the process, T&T must use its own innate intellectual capital and leverage it to get the willing cooperation of organizations and countries. Then leverage intellectual capital and repackage it into the final product that is marketed to the Medical & Wellness Ecosystem.

For instance, T&T can be the centre for training, finance and anything in the world associated with Medical & Wellness Tourism.

India is a great source of intellectual capital for Medical & Wellness Tourism.

T&T can become a transshipment point and a repackaging point for redistribution of Intellectual Capital to the Latin America & the Caribbean region. The major market will be North America and Europe, initially, then China and the Far East, and finally the world.

It should be understood that the Latin American & Caribbean market, in itself, is also a lucrative market for promoting internal tourism within this region.

Underlying Strategy Towards The Branding Process

Branding T&T will be achieved by maximizing usage of modern communication and social management technologies to create a branded international Wellness Community named the 5 O’Clock KREW (KREW).

We shall build warm relationships among the ordinary people, institutions, organizations and countries and leverage our culture and our diasporic relationships with India, Africa, Europe, North America and the Far East. This will multiply the membership in our branded Wellness Community; the KREW. It will also provide the stable human and institutional platforms for creating Brand T&T!

We shall integrate our rich heritage of ecology, culture, our educated population, with our proximity with the valuable traditions and ecosystems that exists within the regions of Latin America and the Caribbean, to create one powerful, sustainable, world-class and profitable Medical & Wellness Ecosystem.

Finally we shall capitalize upon our advantageous proximity and warm relationships with the more wealthy economies that make up the North American and European markets, initially, then the world.

Because T&T has nurtured and built this Medical & Wellness Ecosystem within our region of the world, and because T&T is the benefactor and facilitator of all interested parties who participate within this bounteous Medical & Wellness Ecosystem, T&T is virtually guaranteed to be recognized and branded internationally as the Mecca of Medical & Wellness Tourism in the World.

The Approach

In approaching this objective of creating a Medical & Wellness Ecosystem, one needs to appreciate that there are two distinct human elements that need to be addressed.

The first is the individual citizen.

The second is citizenship as manifests in groups of people such as organizations of various types (Entrepreneurial, Social and Regulatory) including: Corporations, NGOs, Educators, Sovereign states, Provinces or Municipalities.

Let us examine the suggested approach to managing their unique characteristics:

1) Managing the Micro Human Element: This refers to the skills and efforts needed to create an activist citizenry. Here each individual assumes personal responsibility for their own results as their contribution towards the Ecosystem.

In other words each citizen must be sold on the idea that they are active participants in the Medical & Wellness Ecosystem.

These are the consumers and ultimate beneficiaries within the Medical & Wellness Ecosystem.

2) Managing the Macro Human Element: This refers to the skills and efforts needed to excite entrepreneurs, social activists and regulators.

These are the parties that will create and maintain a healthy environment that is ripe for the Medical & Wellness Ecosystem to flourish.

Enormous Potential of Wellness Medical & Wellness Tourism

Medical & Wellness Tourism is an emerging and rapidly growing market of over US$170 Billion as of year 2010.

Wellness Tourism is the newer ecosystem and is growing much more rapidly than Medical Tourism. Barriers to entry are very low.

There is much more scope for individual citizens to participate and to benefit in Wellness Tourism. It also requires less expensive infrastructures, most of which are naturally available. Training time and cost are much less, and less stringent requirements need to be satisfied. Promotion merely requires rebranding existing products and services to reflect a Wellness ethos. Therefore existing products and services can be easily repositioned or rebranded as a Wellness Product merely by adjusting the marketing message. This means that there is no significant cost increase in the marketing budget for many existing products or services to be rebranded as Wellness Products.

Wellness Products are also less expensive for consumers to access and certainly, compared to Medical Products, they are much more pleasurable to the soul! This means that the T&T, and indeed the Caribbean and Latin American, economies can immediately refit themselves and enter into the Medical & Wellness Ecosystem by first engaging the Wellness Market.

The Medical & Wellness Ecosystem impacts upon every citizen of the world. None can escape! Regardless of one's personal viewpoint on the matter, everyone participates as either a consumer, or a service provider; or both.

Therefore its potential contribution to national health and employment is unsurpassed!

With T&T and the Caribbean, having a very small population, it is relatively easy to transform the public mindset and the economies into a Medical & Wellness Tourism Economy. Each country can adopt its own theme within this economy; T&T shall adopt the theme of being the Mecca of Medical & Wellness Tourism, another can adopt a theme that best suits its purpose. When this occurs our individual marketing messages will be concentrated  and leveraged within the Wellness Economy. This synergy will focus attention upon this region, in the same manner as what occurs when multiple similar businesses focus attention on their trade and eventually brand their location or region. Current examples are: The Caribbean for Tourism, Japan for cars, and locally, St James for nightlife.

This means that every one of our citizens can participate or benefit from Brand T&T the Mecca of Medical & Wellness Tourism.

An Opportunity Waiting To Be Claimed

No country or region has yet captured the brand of being recognized as the leader in the Medical & Wellness Ecosystem.

This brand is waiting to be grasped by the enterprising nation (or region) that seeks this opportunity.

With our relatively small population, prolific education system, convenient location and our many valuable assets that are ready-made for transforming our economy into a Medical &Wellness Ecosystem, it is relatively easy for T&T to earn the brand as the Mecca of Medical & Wellness Tourism.

All we need is to adjust our messaging; just adjust our marketing ethos!

Focus all our assets and label our achievements under the rubric of "Brand T&T, the Mecca of Medical & Wellness Tourism". This will create enormous synergies that sharply focuses our marketing initiatives to make our message become irresistible and which must be heeded by our target audience; which first of all, includes our citizens.

The Medical & Wellness Ecosystem have the potential to transform the T&T economy into a scale that delivers prodigious, sustainable, multifaceted revenue streams at bountiful rates that oil and gas never could!

The Caribbean, CARICOM and Latin America

One thing that must not be misunderstood, no initiative shall be worth its effort without due consideration for our Caribbean, nay CARICOM and Latin American families.

Regionally, we must all unite to win this fight for the Wellness Market!

A Gift For You

Here is a beauty from Gladys Night.

She advises that the success that you see others enjoy did not come suddenly.

They were giving of themselves, toiling while you were asleep.

Are you toiling towards your success, or are you still asleep with eyes wide shut?

Are you prepared to put in the sweat that you need to give before enjoying your havest of success?

It always take longer than you expect or would like; so give generously.

Help others! Give!

Give first! Give abundantly; only then are you entitled to receive success!

Artiste: Gladys Knight

Title: "Overnight Success"

Samuel Bernard

Plan Administrator