Busko-Zdrój hosted the latest initiative held as part of a campaign promoting inbound health tourism. This time the town hosted a group of Polish American journalists, who met with representatives of the health resort, sanatoria and hotels.

The meeting in question was staged in the Marconi Sanatorium and involved, i.a. representatives of local authorities and institutions and entrepreneurs connected with the sector of health tourism. Anna Krupka, Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Sport and Tourism, delivered the opening speech: “The promotion of Poland’s offer of health tourism is strongly needed to reinforce the position of Polish economic operators. Poland offers high-quality medical, health resort and spa and wellness services. Busko-Zdrój has been dynamically growing in the last few years and is now an unquestionable strong point of Poland’s portfolio of health resorts”.

Poland boasts a huge potential in the discussed field and can easily compete with other destinations. The list of assets at our disposal includes well-educated and experienced healthcare staff, of the medical and nursing variety, representing world-class level.  Both advanced medicine and health resort treatments are among our key fields of expertise. As many as 45 Polish locations (or part of them) were granted the status of a health resort. Some now specialise in providing services aimed at guests from abroad.

The U.S. market is considered to be among the largest sectors of outbound health tourism in the world. In 2017 Poland was visited by close to half a million U.S. tourists (495,000 to be exact). From the viewpoint of Polish tourism, travellers with Polish roots constitute an exceptionally important group. According to data of Ministry of Sport and Tourism, they account for more than 19% of all foreigners visiting our country. In 2017 out of a total of 18.3 million tourists from abroad, there were 3.5 million members of the Polish diaspora. This really is a numerous group whose attention should be drawn not only to cultural tourism, but also its health-centred counterpart. After all, Poland is a highly attractive country and its best ambassadors are of Polish descent.

Polish Tourism Organisation (Polska Organizacja Turystyczna - POT) operates a part of the government project “Go to Brand”. The industry programme of promotion is aimed at the sector of healthcare services and conducted as part of implementing sub-measure 3.3.2: Smart Growth Operational Programme Promotion of economy based on Polish product brands - Polish Economy Brand. The goal of the project is to widespread information about high-quality healthcare services available in Poland and solidify its positive image. The undertaking is being implemented mostly in prospective markets outside of the European Union, i.a. Russia, Norway and the US. The budget allocated for related operations amounts to almost 5.4 million PLN contributed by EU finding. High-margin health tourism is a branch, whose growth is definitely worth investing in.