Ah, San Diego—sun, sand, beaches… and hospitals.

A report in Stat News says that San Diego is betting on converting plain old tourism into medical tourism, hoping to attract patients to its hospitals with the city's other attractions serving as icing on the cake, so to speak.

A philanthropist has actually funded a marketing campaign pitching the city that way to patients in need of care, but simply advertising the city as a health care destination does not medical tourism make, according to Maria Todd, a business consultant who focuses on health tourism strategy. In the report, Todd is quoted saying, “We have sun. We have beach. We have hotel. We have hospital. We have doctor. Throw them all in a bowl and call it medical tourism? No, it doesn't work like that.”