Have the potentials that medical tourism as an economic branch can contribute to our tourism and overall development been recognized, what needs to be changed in the legislative and organizational scheme, how much the lack of a tourist strategy hinders the development of this segment of medical and tourist offerings, and how important it is to catch that ‘train’, one of the fastest-growing and most dynamic industries in the world, will be addressed at the 2nd Conference on Medical Tourism in Opatija from April 25 to 27 in Opatija.
The conference titled ‘Medical Tourism – A Path to Enhancing the Competitiveness of the Croatian Tourist Product’ is organized by the Association for the Development of Medical Tourism, and the main topics and numerous esteemed speakers were announced today at the Sheraton Hotel in Zagreb by Assoc. Dr. Miljenko Bura, the chairman of the organizing committee, Mr. Damir Novotny, an independent economic analyst, and Prof. Dr. Mato Bartoluci, the chairman of the Expert Committee.
– Global trends include the globalization of the medical services market, which is experiencing significant growth of 20 to 25 percent annually, and an increasingly aging population. Croatia, where tourism began to develop on the foundations of health services in Opatija, has missed the opportunity to develop the infrastructure for this branch, leaving many neighboring countries that learned from us 20 years ago ahead of us. Nevertheless, we still have a significant advantage in the recognized quality of our medical staff, as well as tourist capacities that we can develop in this segment of offerings – said Miljenko Bura, while Damir Novotny emphasized that investment in this segment has multiplier effects, but accused the government of being a brake in the institutional, regulatory, and economic framework. Mato Bartoluci announced that he would elaborate in his lecture in Opatija on why tourism in Croatia has no alternative, why without a strategy only palliative measures are taken, why mass tourism does not exclusively signify something negative and of poor quality, and why it is urgently necessary to develop an incentive system. (D.T.T.)
