Visit Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Fla.'s convention and visitors bureau, has partnered with the City of Jacksonville and 11 local medical facilities in order to brand Jacksonville as "America's Health Center," it recently announced. The goal of the new medical tourism effort, it says, is to increase visitor demand and recognition for Jacksonville's medical resources.
"In bringing together Jacksonville's well-acclaimed medical facilities for the universal goal of welcoming visitors, we are showcasing the wide range of expertise of the city's life sciences industry," Madeline Scales-Taylor, board chair for Visit Jacksonville and community relations administrator for Jacksonville's Mayo Clinic, said in a statement. "With the large number of highly specialized services, technology and research positioned in Jacksonville, the city truly lives up to the brand, 'America's Health Center.'"
Due to the presence of many world-class medical facilities—including the Mayo Clinic—in Jacksonville, Visit Jacksonville says the city has become an attractive destination for medical meetings and events. In order to make it even more appealing to planners working in the health care and pharmaceutical industries, it has launched a dedicated medical tourism Web site at
www.VisitJacksonville.com/medical. Targeting three distinct groups—patients and their families who are in Jacksonville for extended patient care; medical meetings and conventions; and business-to-business meetings with local medical products and services companies—the site features information about Visit Jacksonville's medical partners, as well as local hotels and meeting planning services.
"Jacksonville's perfect temperatures, meeting facilities, beaches and attractions make the city an exceptional destination for a medical-related meeting, or as a place to heal during a patient's top-rated treatment," Visit Jacksonville President and CEO John Reyes said in a statement. "We want to welcome those patients and their families, as well as medical business-to-business travelers and convention attendees to experience our health care resources and lifestyle."