IndexAbstractIntroductionHealthMedical travelEuropean cross-border healthcareMarketTouristsMarketingConclusionAbstract Medical tourism has become one of the "market niches" that is increasingly talked about in the context of growth potential, i.e. the growth rate of the number of passengers who seek health services outside the borders of their country. Today's medical tourism is certainly an 'industry' that generates a significant number of passengers and a significant financial turnover at an international level, but by establishing a realistic state of affairs, turnover achieved on arrivals and overnight stays (on the emotional and/or receptive side ), or financial parameters, is really not an easy task, especially since there are no international standards for statistical medical monitoring of tourism, i.e. the information generally known to the public depends on the methodological approaches of the authors. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Introduction Medical tourism has had a long gestation period. The very first forms of tourism aimed directly at increasing health and well-being. The first recorded example of medical tourism dates back more than 2,000 years, when visitors, perhaps the first pilgrims, traveled from across the Mediterranean to Epidaurus in the Peloponnese, said to be the birthplace and sanctuary of the god of healing, Asclepius, son of Apollo. In Roman times the use of water was widespread, spas date back to more than 2000 years ago and water-related treatments were common in many regions. The many spas and sacred sites that remain in many parts of Europe and elsewhere, in some places represented the actual beginning of local tourism, as people traveled to obtain physical benefits. From then on, particular therapeutic places and landscapes, from springs to mountains to temples and cathedrals, have played a significant role in most cultures and regions. Health tourism, in a relatively delicate form, has a long and uninterrupted history. What exactly constitutes health tourism varies. Golf, tennis (and other sports) can be enjoyable and healthy exercises and sources of well-being for some, but boring or sources of tension and pain for others. Festivals, leisure centers and cruises can stimulate health tourism, while work psychology workshops can be a form of wellbeing. However, such recreational activities, undoubtedly a healthy relaxation for many, extend the notion of health tourism beyond forms of tourism that are specifically or primarily about health. Medical tourism is a recent example of niche tourism, with the rapid increase in international travel seeking cosmetic surgery and solutions to various conditions, benefiting healthcare workers, local economies and the tourism industry. While medical tourism may represent a new niche in the industry, tourism has always been associated with improved health and well-being, perhaps more often perceived as something that occurs through entertainment, rest and relaxation rather than through substantial changes bodily. Traveling to improve health is in fact the most enduring niche in the history of tourism. A long history of spa tourism dates back to antiquity, and in more recent centuries variations of more general health tourism have included phenomena ranging from naturism and bushwalking to meditation and detoxification. It has become important for many reasons: (i) disappointments with home medical care; (ii) lack of access to healthcare at reasonable cost, in a reasonable time or in a reasonable settingunderstanding; (iii) inadequate insurance and income to pay for local health care; (iv) the increase in high-quality medical care in “developing” countries; (v) inconsistent legal and ethical responses to complex healthcare issues; (vi) greater mobility; and (vii) perhaps most importantly, a growing demand for cosmetic surgery that ties many other factors together. Medical tourism has also emerged from a greater willingness to accept alternative practices and procedures and to experience different cultures and places, even though most medical tourism is focused on "formal" biomedical procedures. However, it followed various social and economic changes that encouraged a more holistic approach to healthcare in which health-seeking behavior became more likely to reflect patients' views in terms of values, beliefs and philosophical orientations in comparisons of health and life, rather than those of the "medical establishment". For some this has meant becoming more involved in social determinants of health such as community, belonging and hope; for others it meant greater individualism. Paradoxically, then, greater support for complementary and alternative medicine has grown alongside the rise of cosmetic surgery, a function of a "self-obsession that is reaching an all-time high thanks to new media, technology and consumer-oriented services." . Yet one of the critical issues in the development of medical tourism is the regulation of standards. Health While health was generally perceived as a physical phenomenon, the mind and spirit were rarely excluded. Ill health was often attributed to spiritual and cultural causes, even as biomedicine accompanied scientific development and a move away from localized cultural beliefs about health. However, in recent years there has once again been a shift in belief systems away from an exclusive regard for biomedicine and the primacy of science (also evident in the revival of creationism and opposition to evolution in some Western societies). While older forms of tourism, with their links to oracles, pilgrimage and particularly venerable sites, might have been seen as emphasizing ritual and religion, a sense of spirituality and the particular role of both mobility and places therapeutics were never completely replaced by "new" forms of knowledge and practice, which in the 20th century were often revived in various contemporary forms. Bodies, minds, and belief systems were rarely disconnected. This often took a form in which more spiritual and less strenuous activities, such as yoga and massage, once the preserve primarily of certain Asian countries, were absorbed into Western practices as health and well-being became more holistic phenomena. Nourishing the mind and spirit in various ways, long an important part of tourism, has reemerged in new forms. Physical and mental well-being is fundamental for good health and for health and medical tourism in its many manifestations. Much of health tourism involves various forms of relaxation: diet, exercise and new ways of thinking. Although bodies (and minds) were sometimes transformed, they were not transformed through surgery or other dramatic procedures. While for some spirituality may be at the heart of health and wellbeing, medical tourism focuses on more physical issues, where the emphasis is on biophysical processes, although psychological issues are very important and spiritual elements are not entirely absent. Some variants of medical tourism, such as cosmetic dentistry, however, can be seen as having little to do withhealth, even for those involved, as they lack dramatic and invasive procedures, have no "medical" component, and receive less attention. in what follows. Medical tourism represents only one pole of the growing expansion of global healthcare. Such medical trade also includes doctors traveling to other countries or regions to offer services, medical companies investing and developing facilities in remote destinations, and the current and growing practice of telemedicine in which X-rays are read, diagnoses made and even robotic operations are conducted from afar. However, there is no doubt that the phenomenon of travelers seeking medical care has the greatest economic impact on a region, both in terms of healthcare income and hospitality obtained from such travellers. Successful medical treatment is the primary goal of medical tourism. It is the core competency of hospitals while a hospitality team has experience in customer service. Both teams have competitive ways to strengthen their core competencies and improve their strengths. However, the greatest success in medical tourism lies in aligning these two core competencies of both parties. Productivity and efficiency can be maximized by alignment. Furthermore, success in medical care and memorable customer service complement each other to provide an excellent medical tourism experience. Medical travel Medical tourism is far from a recent phenomenon; people have been traveling to access healthcare in distant places for centuries. Traditionally, wealthy people traveled from poorer countries with basic healthcare facilities to higher-income countries that offered a better range of high-quality services. However, there has been a recent reversal in the direction of travel, with patients traveling from high-income countries in North America and Europe to low- and middle-income countries in Latin America and Asia. This new trend is driven by the ability of private facilities in low-income countries to offer high-quality services, with virtually no wait times, at a relatively low cost. However, despite the "hype" in the media regarding medical tourism, it is worth noting that the majority of this type of trade actually occurs at a regional level. For example, patients from the United States and Canada often travel to destinations such as Brazil and Costa Rica; Western European patients travel to Eastern Europe; while patients from Gulf countries and Pakistan travel to South and Southeast Asia, mainly India and Thailand. In addition to regional proximity, the country's specialty also plays a role in patients' decisions about where to access care. This is because the destination countries have specialized in certain procedures. For example, Thailand and India specialize in orthopedic and cardiac surgery, while Eastern European countries are hot spots for dental surgery. European Cross-Border Healthcare Compared to other countries in the world, and even to other Western industrialized countries, most citizens in the European Union enjoy excellent, or at least relatively good, coverage of healthcare and healthcare costs. However, a closer look reveals a much more differentiated picture. The growing demand for healthcare services and products from an aging population, the growing supply of innovative pharmaceutical technologies and products, and the growing health awareness of patients lead to an increase in public healthcare expenditure while, at the same time, rising unemployment rates and rising debtsGovernments reduce the capacity of governments to strengthen or even stabilize the financial resources of national health systems. The response of European Union member states is continued healthcare reform focused on cost containment. The measures include a reduced scope of public health care coverage, increased insurance rates and/or copayments – and in some cases rationed care. The legal context in which cross-border healthcare takes place in Europe has primarily been shaped more by economic interests, legislation and jurisprudence than by healthcare policies at EU or Member State level. In a sense, therefore, it is a paradox that cross-border care within the EU is defined as much by citizens' rights as by consumer forces. In many ways, EU citizens receiving healthcare in a Member State other than their own are no different than any patient traveling for treatment around the world. The European patient may actually travel to another Member State as a consumer – as many do – to obtain services that are cheaper, better or more accessible in a Member State other than their own. This process is probably very consistent with the original economic intentions and treaty agreements at the core of the EU and the integration process that the Union embodies. The EU was founded to ensure the free flow across borders of people, money, goods and services. Market Medical tourism is a niche tourism, like ecotourism, religious tourism and adventure tourism. This type of tourism does not attract masses but rather a select number of people whose demand is large enough to generate sufficient business. Medical tourism, with its medical and tourism components, has both a market and an audience. Unlike ecotourism, in which the traveler chooses a destination and then seeks an ecological focus, in medical tourism the traveler first chooses medical treatment and only then combines it with a destination and possibly also a connection to the holiday. Just as all tourism is purpose-oriented (meaning travelers want to see a show, or experience a tribal encounter, or touch a historical artifact, or simply party), so too does medical tourism occur with a specific goal in mind. . The traveling patient aims to purchase a particular service and achieve a defined healthcare goal. That patient seeks to maximize utility subject to his or her income constraints. Medical services dominate in this calculation, but non-medical services, including lodging, restaurant meals, excursions, and ground transportation, are not insignificant to the total experience. In his efforts to minimize health care costs, the patient has become a tourist. In its efforts to maximize utility, Homo Turisticus has become a niche researcher. That particular niche requires seamless integration between the medical and hospitality industries. The result of this integration is the medical tourism market. Large-scale medical tourism is a recent manifestation of services trade that has acquired considerable economic significance internationally. The destinations are no longer limited to examples of children in East Asia frequented by Americans, British and regional residents, but now extend to numerous countries around the world that consider themselves and promote their role as hubs, such as Dubai and Hungary . There is ample motivation for healthcare market players to analyze medical tourism: patients can benefit from access to higher quality care or lower self-payments; public providers can generate revenue.