Abstract: The subject of the study is the main and background institutional factors of medical tourism. It is proved that the background factors are, among other things, a complex of ethno-cultural components, the inclusion of which in the practice of the phenomenon can significantly increase the attractiveness of the host territory. Special attention is paid to such a factor as the ethno-cultural preparation of a medical tourist to stay in a different environment in terms of social interaction. The importance of the proposed approach in all types and forms of medical tourism is emphasized: health/medical, inbound, outbound, domestic (taking into account the polyethnicity of our country). The conducted sociological measurements (focus group discussions, mass survey) showed that such work with patients is not carried out. Health and wellness practices include the interaction of two social groups – the patient and the medical staff. In the case of medical tourism, the second of the groups is differentiated into two subgroups – medical personnel and specialists of the tourism industry. It is established that there is no unified scheme for ensuring the process at the level of collegial interaction of these two subgroups at all. The novelty of the research consists in actualizing this contradiction and substantiating the expediency of ethno-cultural preparation of a medical tourist to stay in a different environment in terms of social interaction in the context of multiculturalism. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that it is necessary to create an expert formation at the regional level, which could ensure the complexity of the interaction of both subgroups on the basis of public-private partnership and achieve a more capacious inclusion of the ethnocultural potential of the territory in the medical product. This poses the task of additional training of tourist specialists specifically for medical tourism - to work with patients in the direction of familiarizing them with the ethnocultural features of the receiving locus and with variants of models of interaction between a doctor and a patient.