SRomania Spies Potential Profit in Medical Tourism

Need a dental implant? Try Romania. Medical tourism there is becoming a popular option for people in Western Europe on account of the bargain prices.

Romania stands to earn up to €500 million a year by 2015 from medical tourism, which is still being insufficiently exploited, according to the country's Tourism Ministry.

Around 3 % of the tourists who visited Romania last year - around 60,000 people - came for medical services, a number almost double the figure in 2009. They spent some €250 million in the country, official data shows.

Recognising the growing potential of this sector, three ministries, Tourism, Healthcare and Education, recently signed a partnership to collaborate in promoting medical tourism.

“Around 70 % of the medical tourism in the country comes from spa tourism, the rest is dental tourism, aesthetic surgery and anti-aging therapies,” explains Razvan Macea, from a local medical tourism company.

“The boom has come while the country’s state medical care system has declined. But this has worked to the advantage of private operators who have started to open more clinics and hospitals to cover gaps in the market.”

In recent years, Romania’s popularity has been especially on the rise for plastic surgery and dentistry, where the prices appear most competitive.

Romanian cosmetic surgery and dental work cost around 40 % less than in most parts of Western Europe or the US.

Romania is not the only beneficiary of this trend in the region. Hungary and Poland have also made names for themselves as popular medical tourist destinations.

Austrians in particular have been travelling across the border and taking advantage of the cheaper medical services in neighbouring countries for years.

Romania has to do more to become a top medical tourism destination, experts say.

“Any tour should also include fun ways of spending time, besides the core purpose of the trip, which is the medical treatment itself,” says Petre Popescu, who works in a tourist agency.

“Despite its attractions and lower prices, Romanian big cities, including the capital, Bucharest, still have a bad reputation for damaged roads, traffic jams and pollution,” he added.

Until now, Romania has lagged far behind its Eastern European neighbours as a holiday destination.

Approximately 1.2 million visitors entered the country last year, according to the country’s National Statistics Institute, well below the 5 million who went to neighbouring Bulgaria and the 9 million who went to Hungary.