PNS29 CHANGING OF HEALTH CARE TOURISM AND ITS RECOVERING ROLE FOR ECONOMY

Abstract

Health tourism services are in this study’s centre. We assessed what kind of recovering roles has health tourism for the regions’ economy, how trends change the ever-changing health tourism. Our aim was to introduce the complexity of health tourism and its economic effects. We assessed three different segments (wellness, fitness, waterpark) of health tourism. 4000 questionnaires were sent out. Closed and open questions to form opinions were both used. A quantitative, cross-sectional study was carried out with random sampling. Socio-demographic factors (age, sex, level of income, marital status etc.), and health tourism services used by respondents were assessed by nominal, ordinal and interval variables. Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, frequency) were calculated. Microsoft Excel 2010 and SPSS 20.0 were used for calculating and visualizing data. Out of 4000, 3501 questionnaires were sent back (response rate: 87.52%). Health conscious behaviour and primer prevention are present in 30-70% of cases. 78% of respondents with high income use wellness services, while 61% of people use them with medium and only 21% of low-income workers are present in this sector. 81% of families availed themselves of waterpark services, 69% of single people used spa services. 31% of spa services were used as 7-days long cure packages, 6% of services were 14-days long. New medical-wellness services differentiated by 15%, putting the sector in front of major future developments. Restructuring and expansion of services are remarkable in the area of health tourism. Age and educational attainment are determinative. Scale of families and the variety of offered services must be considered. Presence of discounts can also influence buying services. Amount of income and the presence of a financial supporting system also have a significant role.