Health tourism as the engine of local and regional economies
The uniqueness of health tourism products can be explained by the fact that on the one hand they can be considered tourism products, since people use them on a voluntary basis, and, on the other hand, they are part of the health care system, since many health tourists use these services with their doctor’s referral. Medical services – in Hungary and also abroad – are most often covered by some health insurance policy, but self-financing is becoming more and more common. More recently state insurance is withdrawing and private insurance companies are gaining ground. This is why self-financing is becoming more and more important. (Hustiné Béres K. 2011). Self-financing foreign patients have appeared in public health care institutions, too. (Kincses és mtsai 2009). In several medicinal baths the main source of income is not the entrance fees but the fees paid for the individual medical services. These services and the individual treatments are the most profitable activities. (Várhelyi T. 2011/12).
Due to its multiplication effect the emergence of health tourism at a given place might give rise to the development of other areas as well. (Molnár Cs. 2011). This is why developments in health tourism need to be coordinated with developments in other branches of the economy so as to achieve optimum prosperity. So as to reach this goal instead of supporting traditional investments , a special empasis should be put on the complex development of resorts, baths and spas. This work requires professional marketing activities. Other factors include the consideration of local characteristics, the elaboration of special offers and an innovative product development.
Health tourism as a system of tourism can operate efficiently only if supply and demand meet. When investigating the demand side of health tourism it is very important for researchers to familiarize themselves with the target groups of this tourism product (active youth, young people in search for entertainment, health-conscious young people , middle-aged people with families,,health-conscious middle-aged people, the health-conscious elderly, post-operational patients who are in need of rehabilitation, the elderly who want to recover from a condition) (Budai Z.– Székács O. 2001).
In addition to health tourism offers the maximum utilization of the attractions of a given destination might generate further income, as well as jobs. Health tourism can also be linked to rural tourism, equestrian tourism, ecotourism, conference tourism, sports tourism, culinary tourism, wine tourism or religious tourism. In addition, the potential customers need to be attracted by a wide range of other offers, including beauty treatments, manager healthcare, team building programmes, family reunions, sports programmes so as to create the possibility for longer, higher quality stays, use the capacity more rationalistically, and to assure competitiveness.
In order to build the local capacities for better use, the groups of enterprizes, the so-called clusters are becoming more important, because they can better adopt to global competition conditions. In health tourism members of a cluster include those enterprizes which provide direct services (e.g. baths, places of accomodation, hospitals, sanatoria) as well as economic, legal, and marketing businesses, local governments and educational institutions. (Molnár Cs. 2011). For further details see: