engleski

Health tourism in the European union: financial effects and future prospects

As a specific branch of tourism, health tourism has rapidly grown into a highly developed industry providing customers with medical, dental or surgical care while on holiday. All of the above requires tangible products, services and value, such as improvement in health, illness prevention and recovery after a serious affliction. Three forms of health tourism were identified based on a review of relevant literature: medical, wellness and spa, which can be further divided into the following parallel sections: illness-health- wellness and curative- preventative-promotive. In 2014, the European Union market witnessed an estimated 56.0 million of domestic arrivals and 5.1 million of international arrivals for the purpose of health tourism. The objective of this paper is to present the financial effects of health tourism revenues on the European Union market. In addition, we present the results of a SWOT analysis of health tourism in the European Union. Based on the data analyzed, we believe that governments should play a significant role in fostering sustainable development of this specific branch of tourism and attracting more health tourists from various countries worldwide. In order to achieve that, European Union member state governments should improve all types of infrastructure facilities, including road access, electricity and water supply along with air traffic, safety and accommodation. All of these objectives can be achieved through grants, subsidies and loans, not only from governments but from international financial institutions as well.

health tourism ; government ; revenues ; European Union ; SWOT analysis

nije evidentirano