Medical tourism in Bulgaria
Bulgaria is a country with a huge potential for tourism: mountain, seaside, cultural, rural, gourmet and spa. Over the last years the country has become more popular as a destination for another kind of tourism, medical, offering the added value of getting in touch with a unique culture, traditions and nature apart from successful and cost-effective treatment. The boom of aesthetic and dental medicine coupled with good traditions in heart surgery, IVF, ophthalmology, oncology, dermatology etc. and with a well developed network of sanatoria, attract thousands of foreign tourists annually.
“Well, of course, their leading motivation to look for medical services in a foreign country, is the lower cost of treatment”, explains Irina Ilieva, sales manager in a travel agent offering medical tourism packages. “The other strong point is that the Bulgarian system is competitive with its tight schedules. There are procedures and specific tests that take very long time to make in other countries. In Bulgaria they can be made quickly. Last but not least, Bulgarian doctors have a very good reputation abroad. In most cases medical tourism is combined with holidays in either the Black Sea or mountain resorts, with visits to balneo centers offering good conditions for rehabilitation and convalescence after surgical intervention.”
Statistics suggest that medical services in Bulgaria are about 50 percent cheaper than their analogues in other EU countries. This is the case with some surgeries or manipulations enjoying high demand such as lazar corrections of shortsightedness, cataract treatment, IVF and hip replacement. As a destination of medical tourism Bulgaria is most popular with patients from UK, Germany, Greece and Macedonia. There is highest demand for aesthetic medicine services. “The whole of the European Union has seen a trend of rising mobility of patients and healthcare specialists. This is a good basis for improving the accessibility and quality of medical services with the purpose of attracting more patients”, Irina Ilieva explains and adds:
“Plastic surgery and rejuvenation procedures indeed are on top of the charts of medical tourism in Bulgaria. High professionalism and the affordable prices are major strengths in times of financial crisis. Dental services too, have become very popular, and I think that dental tourism is in for a bright future. Well, the point is that foreigners that choose Bulgaria for certain medical services are in difficulty choosing a clinic or a medical team. It is also important what accommodation will be offered to them. This part of the service is the priority of travel agents involved medical tourism. They take the responsibility of providing for the comfort of patients and for the best choice of clinics and doctors. On the whole, foreign tourists are quite satisfied with medical tourism in Bulgaria. The best preferred combination is quality medical service and holidays. The Bulgarian Black Sea resorts that have state-of-the-art centers for medical tourism are easily accessible for foreign tourists owing to frequent charter flights. In this part of Europe, Bulgaria’s leading competitors in medical tourism include Turkey, the Czech Republic and Poland.”
The Bulgarian Medical Tourism Association has been working for the promotion of this kind of tourism over the recent years. Last year, the Black Sea City of Varna played host to the first specialized fair for medical, spa and balneo tourism aimed to put together the efforts of the medical and tourism sectors for the sake of making a worthy presentation of Bulgaria’s potential in this area. Medical centers and clinics from across the country joined the fair, as well as spa hotels and sanatoria that presented various medical packages. A conference that was held as part of the fair, looked into the challenges and opportunities ahead of Bulgarian medical tourism.
Text and photo: bnr.bg
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