Marijana Biondić: It is important to encourage the health motive, but also the tourist motive, with all the secondary content

Crikvenica hosts the jubilee 10th conference on health tourism CIHT

19. October 2022.

World health tourism experts will gather at jubilee 10th Crikvenica International Health Tourism conference (CIHT) October 20rd and 21th, which will be held in a hybrid form - at the same time in Hotel Omorika in Crikvenica and online.

Over the course of ten years, this conference has established itself as a relevant conference on health tourism in the region, and its importance internationally promotes Crikvenica and Kvarner, and the whole of Croatia as a desirable destination for this type of tourism.

Every year, the conference records an increasing number of participants from all over the world. Every year, the live conference is attended by more than 100 eminent domestic and foreign health tourism experts who are in leading positions in their institutions. Last year's 9th CIHT conference held in a hybrid form gathered 120 participants at the location, and online participants from 55 countries.

"We are extremely proud that the CIHT conference experienced its tenth, jubilee edition. It all started with a small tourist forum, and in recent years top, respected experts from all over the world have been guests at CIHT. CIHT positions Croatia among the leading health destinations in Europe and beyond. We will continue to work to make the CIHT conference grow from year to year, to be a place for the adoption and exchange of new knowledge and experiences, all with the aim of developing health tourism and attracting guests in that part of the year where we do not have enough capacity.", she said Marijana Biondić, director of the Tourist Board of the City of Crikvenica.

When it comes to the CIHT conference itself, its growth and development are visible and measurable. Can it be estimated how much influence the conference had on the development of health tourism in Crikvenica and Kvarner in the last ten years?

"For various reasons, it is very difficult to measure it. However, what is important to us when we talk about the conference is that in the last 10 years we have started to talk intensively about health tourism. We started from a small forum that grew into a two-day conference that people come to eminent experts from all over the world. It is certain that all those who deal with health and health tourism acquire new knowledge and recognize new opportunities through networking at the conference itself, which certainly affects the development of health tourism. In addition, it is precisely for this reason that the Ministry of Tourism and Sports continuously supports CIHT with significant funds.", Biondić said.

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Chapter 6

Branding, marketing, health, tourism - these are all topics that will dominate this year's conference. As every year, the conference will host top experts from medicine, tourism, marketing and destination branding - almost 20 eminent lecturers from 7 countries have decided to share their experiences and knowledge through interesting presentations, workshops and panels.

Participants of the jubilee 10th CIHT conference will be able to hear something about the market positioning strategies of institutions and organizations in health tourism, the changed experience of patients after the pandemic, insurance for health tourism, private investments in health care, entrepreneurship in health care and digital marketing in health tourism. Health tourism and sports rehabilitation, career development in health tourism, the role of customer service, cross-cultural training and training on behavior towards people with disabilities will also be discussed.

As the entire tourism industry has problems with professional workforce, the logical question that arises is whether this problem also exists in the health tourism sector? Are there enough therapists, professional medical staff?

"As far as I know, there are a lot of problems on the ground. In Croatia, there is generally a problem with personnel, however, our polyclinics and special hospitals cope with it quite well and still manage to deliver a quality service mainly to domestic forces. In addition, there are additional activities related to the training of professional personnel", explained Biondić.

The 10th anniversary CIHT conference is the product of the successful cooperation of four key organizations for health tourism in Kvarner: Tourist boards of the City of Crikvenica and Kvarner Health Tourism Cluster as organizer and Thalassotherapy Crikvenica and Terme Selce as co-organizer.

It can be said that the key to the success of the conference lies precisely in the fact that its organization is jointly handled by subjects from different fields of expertise, with a common goal. When asked how she evaluates the synergy of all stakeholders in the general perspective of health tourism, and what could possibly be better in this sense, Marijana Biondić answers:

"It can always be better. What we still lack is the agency part, the facilitators who will better connect the tourism and health parts on the ground. When someone comes for health treatment, in addition to wanting a health service, they also want other services. In addition, such guests often bring with them an escort, someone from the family who does not need a health service, but wants a tourist service. This is where I see our additional opportunity for growth and development. It is important to encourage the health motive, but also the tourist motive, with all the secondary contents. This is an additional potential that we have not yet used in the right way. The fact that health tourism has occupied one of the key positions in the Tourism Development Strategy until 2030 is also important. In addition, in the coming period, tenders for EU funds that offer new possibilities for financing infrastructure, personnel and equipment, which will certainly result in some new contents and services in health tourism, but also in an increase in quality."

The two conference days of this year's CIHT are divided into four thematic blocks, and in addition to various lectures by eminent international and domestic experts, two workshops and one panel discussion will be held. The conference will be attended by Elizabeth Ziemba, founder and president of the company Medical Tourism Training and a consultant in health tourism, as well as the world's top branding and customer behavior expert Ilan Geva, president of Ilan Geva & Friends Inc, who is also the director of strategy and director of the American office in to Vmarsh Healthcare. Maria Jukic and Mario Škugor are coming from the Cleveland Clinic, who will talk about health tourism from the point of view of the relationship between the health institution and the patient - how to provide him with the best health care and quality recovery.

One of the planned lectures will deal with strategies for entering new markets. When talking about medical and dental tourism, the area of ​​Crikvenica and Kvarner is currently home to the largest number of Italian tourists looking for these services, but they are gradually expanding to other emission markets as well. "Recently, there has been an increasing demand for sports rehabilitation. In Crikvenica, the Terme Selce Polyclinic has been specifically dealing with this for years, and it is important to say that they have patients from 87 countries around the world and that they have gotten many athletes back on their feet and back into competitions. we are talking about top athletes, even numerous Olympians. Recently, more and more polyclinics are dealing with sports rehabilitation, and this topic will be discussed at this year's panel within the framework of CIHT. As for foreign markets, our traditional markets are the Middle Europe, but it is likely that this will also change over time. Certain activities are also underway in the Scandinavian countries, and cooperation with ACAP has just begun - we are working on a pilot project that should grow into a program in the future that will allow health tourists from to bring the USA to our territory", hinted Biondić.

Chapter 1

It is predicted that the health tourism market will record an average annual growth rate of 2022% in 12, and for the period from 2020 to 2030, the number of medical tourists is expected to grow by 11%. Factors such as rising healthcare costs in the West, increased incidence of chronic diseases and growing demand for various cosmetic procedures contribute to this growth.

It is expected that the United States of America will be the leader in spending on travel for health services, but it is also likely that the spending of travelers from China will increase significantly in the coming years.

More and more countries around the world offer health tourism services and competition is increasing. What are the comparative advantages of Crikvenica and Kvarner in relation to it?

"Our competition is everyone who deals with health tourism, but our comparative advantage is the quality we offer, combined with lower prices than elsewhere. In addition, there is our long-standing tradition. What should definitely be highlighted are the natural healing factors that exist in our country and on the basis of which health tourism began to develop, and which Thalassotherapia Crikvenica has been using for a long time in the treatment of diseases of the respiratory organs. Our beautiful location should not be neglected either - it is definitely different to provide health care in an environment such as Kvarner and Croatia, but in some cold, northern country", said Marijana Biondić.

This year again at CIHT, relevant topics and global trends in health tourism will be discussed, and the organizers expect that the conference will be attended by more than 200 domestic and foreign participants from the field of tourism and health tourism who are in management positions of recognized health tourism institutions. and facilitating agencies.

Registration for the conference is mandatory, and participants can choose between on site participation in the location in Hotel Omorika or online. Online participation is completely free, and the on-site registration fee is HRK 750,00 / EUR 99,54.

Find additional information on the official website conference.

Photo: Crikvenica Tourist Board 

 

 

 

 

 


 

19. October 2022.