Lithuania, the largest of the three Baltic States,
has become a popular destination in recent years, with the number of
international tourists visiting the country growing by 10.8% in 2018 alone. Similarly, the country’s
medical tourism industry is also experiencing a boom, with Lithuania expected
to become one of the top-five European medical destinations by 2022.
Since becoming a European Union member
state in 2004, Lithuania’s medical tourism industry has flourished. This is
largely due to EUR 10 billion in EU funding, which was directed to revamping
the country’s healthcare facilities. This financing also included funding
universities to provide local and international medical students with
world-class higher education, as well as retraining schemes for existing health
care professionals.
Subsequently, Lithuanian medical institutions and their
highly-qualified professionals are able to offer world-class health care
treatments costing up to three-times less than in Western Europe due to lower
taxes and labour costs. In-line with Lithuania’s growing tourism industry, so
has the demand for ‘wellness tourism’ and ‘medical tourism’.
Medical tourism is when a patient travels abroad to receive more
affordable or higher-quality treatments than they would have access to in their
home country. Meanwhile, wellness tourists seek out a vacation that will
maintain or improve their mental and physical health. The driving factors
behind where to visit are usually based on unique, location-based experiences
or therapies that are either unavailable or too expensive compared to where the
visitor comes from.
Overall, medical tourism provides
treatments and aesthetic changes such as surgery or dental work. Wellness
tourism offers preventative measures such as mud and water SPA therapies, as
well as active leisure.
As Lithuania’s medical tourism sector
continues to grow alongside the increasing number of general tourists visiting
the Baltic nation year-on-year, Health Tourism Lithuania aims to bring together
those seeking wellness and medical treatments via a series of packages to a
number of Lithuania’s widely-recognized wellness hotspots. These locations
include the coastal resort of Palanga, the pine forests and sand dunes of Nida,
as well as local SPA towns, such as Birštonas.
“The number of tourists coming to
Lithuania has increased during the last year alone, and if we factor in the
predictions made surrounding health tourism by 2022, we have every reason to be
optimistic,” said Reda Ambrozaitė, one of the founders of Health Tourism
Lithuania. “In addition to the lower costs of healthcare in Lithuania, we also
believe that by mixing the trends of medical and wellness tourism, we can open
the country to new client groups from across Europe.”
The interest in Lithuania as a popular
destination for medical and general tourists is unquestionable. Should medical
and labour costs continue to remain low, then there is every possibility that
the country’s medical clinics and wellness resorts will also enjoy even greater
popularity amongst new demographics.
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