site.btaTechnological Developments Are Transforming Health Tourism Sector, Says Director of European Health Tourism Summit

The health tourism sector is transforming, which is fueled by the rapid development of technology, Ivana Kolar, Director of the European Health Tourism Summit, said in an interview with BTA on Tuesday. Kolar participated at the fourth national health conference of the Bulgarian Union of Balneology and SPA in Burgas.

"It is very difficult to say what will happen in 30 years, but AI-based solutions will play an increasingly important role in our lives, including for our health," she pointed out. "The population is aging globally. At the same time, we want to stay young, be healthy, be more active. Prevention in health tourism is a very important aspect", Kolar emphasized, stressing that the development of the medical sector is also very important. "We need to monitor global changes, trends in this sector and emphasize cooperation, integrating all new technologies. We need to include these innovations in our offers when we talk about health tourism," she pointed out, adding that in the future it will probably be quite normal to have high-tech health resorts offering all kinds of services.

"The conversation about health tourism is extremely important, because health is our future. As we saw in today's presentations, interest in health tourism is growing. This is one of the most important segments of tourism not only in Europe, but also in the world," Kolar noted, adding that Croatia and Bulgaria have a number of similarities and traditions in balneology and that the main services that the two countries offer in the field of health tourism are also similar, for example, dentistry and plastic surgery.  "I think we can learn a lot from each other. We can copy some of the goals, action plans on how to develop even further and position ourselves on the global market", she emphasized, pointing out that Bulgaria will invest EUR 300 million in Croatian health centres. 

Kolar stressed that a challenge to the implementation of a successful strategy for the development of health tourism is the cooperation between different sectors, namely tourism, healthcare, education.