Are Medical Charters Coming?
Gail Hartman, a crewed yacht broker with Virgin Island Sailing, has this interesting post on her CharterWave sponsored blog about Canadian and Caribbean trade groups working together to promote medical tourism in the islands. The groups apparently want to promote the area for “health and wellness” vacations, which may or may not include medical procedures that can be done for less money in the islands than on the North American mainland.
I’ll tell you, I’ve never heard of anyone chartering a yacht for this purpose, but what an interesting idea. You could fly down to Antigua, have a little nip and tuck, and then recuperate onboard a charter yacht in complete privacy–returning home with a noticeable tan instead of noticeable scars.
Heck, if the procedure really is that much less expensive than it would be in the United States, you could even use the money you save to book 10 days instead of the more typical seven onboard a charter yacht.
Gail’s post says other popular charter locations considering working on this promotional effort include the Bahamas and the Grenadines, plus a number of islands in between. I’m not sure how good the medical facilities are in those places, but the charter yachts sure are fantastic!