Answer the following questions based on the information provided above:

1. Which kind of hotel manager do you agree with - the ones that do not wish to limit themselves given their business is good for all three segments of travelers, or the London firm and its approach? Why?

2. If you wish to follow the first strategy(all customers could benefit), what would your marketing communications be at the end-user patient-customer? If you followed the second strategy, what would your marketing communications look like?

3. If you were based in London, which countries would be the first you would approach to develop such relationships? If you were based in Paris, which countries would you approach for your network inclusion? If you were in Houston, Rio? Why?

In the face of ever rising health care costs, more people than ever are looking for the best medical treatment at the best price, and they're willing to go anywhere in the world. Most of the businesses in this space are the health care providers themselves-hospitals, globally connected networks of specialty centers, etc. However, increasingly the hospitality industry is waking up to the opportunities that this type of travel may afford them. Several large hotel chains that already have international presence are seeking medical business partners and airline partners to create packages of seamless service for health care tourists. The airline partnerships are nearly in place; these classes of entities have been cooperating for decades. The medical alliances are trickier because ultimately the medical service providers still care most about health care provision, and concerns regarding business are still relatively novel. For example, they find it somewhat distasteful to be approached by a hotel chain to talk business. Secondary data shed a clear light on the segments of customer/patients in this burgeoning world. There are essentially three groups of customers (not necessarily exclusively or exhaustively). First, some people seek primarily relaxation and stress reduction. They travel to health spas, enjoy aromatherapy massages, herbal and homeopathic treatments. They engage in yoga classes, and they expect the resort's menu to be detoxifying. A second group of healthcare travelers are getting elective surgery done, and they want to recover away from their friends and family. These people are having faces lifted, liposuctioned, breasts increased, etc. The final class of traveler has relatively serious medical condition that are fairly essential to their health. The procedures these folks are looking for range from joint replacements through cancer treatments to heart surgeries. The operations will require more extended hospitalization, and the primary motive of this segment of traveler is price reduction compared to home, even for those customer/patients with insurance. Most of the hotel chains have access to this segmentation information. Some have not sought it out. Others have seen it but are not considering it because they figure that their service, beginning with the hotel room itself, would be welcome by any of these travelers. A hotelier based out of London is considering using this segmentation information. The hotel's competitors think it's nuts, and will be depriving itself, by definition, of access to the other segments' business. The London firm, however, thinks the segmentation-based approach may be a good way to begin. The information would allow hotelier to be more selective in its appeals, both to the end users (the customer/ patients), but also in these still early stages of finding medical partners. The management reasons that, as they gain access, experience, and credibility, the doors to other medical partners may open later.