Possibilities for health tourism development in Croatia

U radu se analiziraju aktualno stanje i potencijali razvoja zdravstvenog turizma u Hrvatskoj. Istraživanje je pokazalo da zdravstveni turizam u Hrvatskoj postoji, ali se razvija polako zbog niza ograničenja – prvenstveno zbog nedostatka razvojne vizije i razvojnog modela, zatim zbog neusklađenosti zakona s područja zdravlja i turizma te ograničene promocije. Problem je i ograničen razvojni potencijal lječilišta i specijalnih bolnica, zastarjeli objekti, nedovoljno ulaganja te premalo snage specijaliziranih posrednika. Prednosti zdravstvenog turizma Hrvatske su atraktivnost i ekološka očuvanost Hrvatske, konkurentne cijene, kvaliteta i tradicija korištenja prirodnih ljekovitih činitelja, blizina emitivnim tržištima i dostupnost Hrvatske, te kvaliteta medicinskog kadra i dobra reputacija zdravstvenih usluga. Hrvatska se još može istaknuti i rastućim brojem hotela s kvalitetnom wellness ponudom, privatnih zdravstvenih osiguravatelja te kvalitetnih zdravstvenih ustanova. Izradom Strategije razvoja turizma u RH do 2020. godine nastala je čvrsta podloga za razvoj strategija ostalih, posebnih oblika turizma. Za ostvarivanje željenih rezultata, potrebno je provesti detaljno analizirane programe i mjere koje maksimalno iskorištavaju snage i prilike zdravstvenog turizma u Hrvatskoj, odnosno minimiziraju utjecaj njegovih slabih strana i prijetnji okoline. Programi i mjere izrađene su za svaki pojedinačni segment zdravstvenog turizma te su usmjereni na eliminiranje uočenih ograničenja u razvoju.The paper analyzes the current state and potential of health tourism development in Croatia. The research showed that health tourism in Croatia exists, but is developing slowly due to a number of limitations, primarily due to the lack of development vision and development model, inconsistency of laws in the field of health and tourism and limited promotion. The problem is also the limited development potential of spas and special hospitals, obsolete facilities, insufficient investment and insufficient strength of specialized intermediaries. The advantages of Croatian health tourism are: attractiveness and ecological preservation of Croatia, competitive prices, quality and tradition of using natural healing factors, proximity to generating markets and accessibility of Croatia, then the quality of medical staff and good reputation of health services. Croatia can also stand out with the growing number of hotels with a quality wellness offer, the growth of the number of private health insurers and the growth of the number of quality health care institutions. With the completion of the Tourism development strategy of Croatia until 2020 a solid basis for the development of strategies for other, special forms of tourism was created. To achieve the desired results in relation to health tourism, it is necessary to implement a detailed analysis of programs and measures that maximize the strengths and opportunities of health tourism in Croatia or minimize the impact of its weaknesses and threats to the environment. Programs and measures have been developed for each individual segment of health tourism and are aimed at eliminating the identified limitations in development