“Health Tourism”

I attended the “First Forum of Health and Retirement Tourism” at the beginning of September in Alamos, Sonora.  The meeting was part of a Sonora’s health tourism initiative that’s focused on improving the retirement infrastructure, providing more opportunities for “Baby Boomers” to retire in Sonora.  They also have a goal of building an infrastructure for Assisted Living so that folks who need some help with some daily living tasks could have options in places like San Carlos, Penasco, Alamos and other Sonora locations.

I presented information about our quality assurance programs (e.g. our licensing system for assisted living) to help the Secretaria de Salud (Dr. Bernardo Campillo, the person in my job in Sonora) develop a quality assurance program.  You can see a (Spanish) write-up on the Sonora Health Secretary’s website at: Sonora Health Secretary’s website.

The assisted living industry in Arizona brings in more than $1B in revenue every year and with the number of retirees expected to continue to increase in the coming years, the folks in Sonora recognize that there’s an opportunity to tap into some of the retirement market.