Annie is the manager of a Health and Wellness Center at Tippy Canoe University Medical Center (TCUMC), a facility that has been known regionally in the mid-west for its research and cutting-edge services in the fields of nutrition, in-patient weight loss programs, and other wellness efforts. She’s having lunch with her colleague, Maggie, and they have been commiserating about the recent influx of many new and different types of entities providing these types of services on an outpatient basis. While they were once the only game in town and the region, it now seems like overnight there are many other players and to their astonishment they have lots of competition. Bill Jones, the CEO of TCUMC, is out of town and attending the annual Congress of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). As he has listened to a number of presentations on the many changes that are taking place in the health care industry across the country, he has become concerned. The recent trends in medical and wellness tourism have caught his attention. After ignoring the many changes that several futurists have been predicting for a couple of years, he has come to the realization that other organizations and institutions around the country have already begun capitalizing on many new opportunities by developing innovative programs in promoting health and wellness, that his organization is a bit behind the curve, and that TCUMC needs to hustle to not be left in the dust. It’s clear to Bill that his boat is being rocked. While enjoying the end of their lunch break, Annie’s cellphone beeps, indicating that she has a text message from Bill. Uh-oh! Something must be up because Bill has never texted before and hasn’t paid much attention to the Health and Wellness Center in the past. Annie reads the message aloud to Maggie.
Think we’ve had our heads in the sand!!! Need to urgently begin investigating medical and wellness tourism asap. Can you and your staff pull some information about what’s going on in these areas, as well as put your heads together and come up with ideas about how we can revamp TCUMC’s health and wellness offerings? Please call my office and get on my calendar for Monday, when I’m back from Chicago.
Annie and Maggie think it must be ESP because they had just been talking about some of these same issues. It’s Thursday afternoon and they need to move quickly to take advantage of this opportunity. Thinking that TCUMC’s competition is now almost any organization in the country, they agree that they need to think broadly about this and explore almost any option. Knowing Bill will want solid justification, and they can’t do the legwork themselves in this short amount of time, they have asked the health care management intern to help them by responding to the following questions.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 

1. What exactly is wellness tourism? What do wellness tourists look like?
2. What are the different types of tourists (outbound, inbound, and intrabound)? Which of these should TCUMC be focusing on?
3. Should the focus be only on wellness tourism or include medical tourism as well?
4. How much is spent on wellness in the U.S. and on wellness tourism in particular?
5. Who are their local competitors and what types of programming do they offer?
6. What is the current state-of-the-art in terms of wellness programs around the country? What specific types of services are being offered to tourists?

7. What is the current state-of-the-art in terms of nutrition and weight-loss programs around the country? What specific types of services are being offered?
8. What is your recommendation for Bill? What areas of nutrition, weight-management, and wellness seem like the best fit for TCUMC to undertake?